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Birth
Birthplace of Charles DickensCharles Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth in Hampshire, the second of eight children to John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth, and his wife Elizabeth Dickens (ne Barrow). -
Hard work
Dickens begins working ten hour days in a Warren's boot-blacking factory, located near the present Charing Cross railway station. He earns six shillings a week pasting labels on the jars of thick polish. This money paid for his lodgings in Camden Town and help him support his family. The shocking conditions of the factory make an ingrained impression on Dickens. -
Work as a clerk
Dickens begins work in the office of Ellis and Blackmore as a law clerk. This was a junior office position, but it came with the potential of helping him up to the Bar. It's here that he gains his detailed knowledge of the law and the poor's suffering at the hands of its many injustices, together with a loathing of inefficient bureaucracy which will stay with him for the rest his life.
