GEORGE HUTCHINSON

that the Dickens house had originally been No. 2 Ordnance
Terrace, indicating that at some stage, the twelve houses had
been renumbered from west to east instead of from east to west,
the Dickens house at No. 2 becoming No. 11. If this renumbering
had happened between 1821 and 1855, the Dickens house is the
murder house; if it had happened after the murder in 1855, the
murder house is the present-day No. 2.
A look through the available Chatham directories was to prove
profitable. An 1838 directory lists Mrs E. Newnsham, recorded to
have been a neighbour of the Dickenses, as still occupying No. 4
Ordnance Terrace, where she had been living back in 1819. An 1849
directory lists Mrs Bacon as living at No. 11. A certain Ambrose
Etherington was at No. 4 from 1865 until 1878, and S. Claringbull at
No. 3 from 1871 until 1878. But in the 1882 directory, Etherington’s
house has become No. 9, and Claringbull’s house No. 10! Since the
Rochester & Chatham Industrial Home for Friendless Girls at No. 1
Ordnance Terrace is recorded to have been at that address since
its foundation, it would appear likely that the renumbering of the
houses happened in 1880 or 1881, at the same time the houses
in the Chatham High Street were renumbered. The reason for
the renumbering was clearly to incorporate the houses in nearby
Watt’s Terrace into the rear [as it would become] of Ordnance
Terrace. The York Hotel at No. 13 Ordnance Terrace remained a pub until quite recently, although it is today a grocer’s
shop.
Thus it can be established that the Dickens house at what is today No. 11 Ordnance Terrace is not identical to the
murder house that was No. 11 Ordnance Terrace back in 1855. The houses were renumbered around 1881, the Dickens
house at No. 2 becoming No. 11, and the murder house at No. 11 becoming No. 2. In spite of the vandalistic ambitions of
the local council in the 1970s, Ordnance Terrace still stands today, although its two houses of fame and notoriety have
swapped numbers with each other.
The Dickens house at what was originally No. 2
[today No. 11] Ordnance Terrace.
Left: The birthplace of Charles Dickens in Portsmouth, a postcard stamped and posted in 1902.
The house still stands.
Above: The Broadstairs house of Charles Dickens, a postcard stamped and posted in 1938.
The house is today a Dickens museum.
Ripperologist 146 October 2015 58