In addition to being one of the greatest authors of all time, Charles Dickens was a great speaker, lecturing on both sides of the Atlantic. It often represented the parts he was reading. His first visit to the city of Chester was on Friday, August 13, 1858, the year in which he began professional readings. The reading was from a Christmas Carol. On December 19, 1861, he was hired, to once again delight the Chester crowd. This visit was canceled until after Christmas due to the death of the Prince Consort.

The reading took place on Thursday, January 30, 1862. Dickens delighted Chester audiences with readings from The Trial of Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby at Mr Squeer’s School. Prices for this event were four shillings (20 pence) for numbered and reserved seats. Unreserved seats in the lower galleries cost two shillings (10 pence) and rear seats cost one shilling (5 pence). These were quite high prices at the time. The reading began at 8 pm and lasted two hours.

On January 22, 1887, Dickens made his last appearance at the Music Hall, but not by choice. The highly respected author of classics such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield gave lectures to Chester’s enthusiastic audience on Dr. Marigold and Bardell Vs Pickwick. The Chester Chronicle newspaper dated January 26, 1887 says: The Music Hall on Tuesday evening was consequently well packed on the whole, although some seats separated as “reserved” were vacant; and this is all the more gratifying in that the high prices charged and the exceptional severity of the weather must have been very dissuasive to all but the most eager to see and hear it.

Shortly after eight Mr. Dickens appeared on the platform. He settled on the crimson coffee table provided and began without a word of preface: “I’m a tight-fisted Jack, Dr. Marigold’s opening words. Dickens concluded with old man Weller’s claims about the value of an alibi, to loud applause.” .

Some sources say that he gave a reading at the Music Hall shortly before his death in 1870. This is incorrect. It was booked to read on Thursday, April 29, 1869, but had to be canceled for health reasons. Dickens had suffered a slight stroke. Mr. F. Carr Beard, a physician and friend of Dickens, gave a statement to the Chester Chronicle of April 24, 1869. He said that he was satisfied that Dickens would not finish his reading, if he appeared. The Chester Chronicle of April 17, 1869 announced the visit as a farewell reading (the last that Mr. Dickens will give in Chester). He would have read The Boots at Holly Tree In, Sikes and Nancy and Mr. Bob Sawyer’s Party in Pickwick. Unfortunately, his fourth visit did not go like this.

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 at the age of fifty-eight.