Sex, Gin & Opium: An Alternative Guided Tour

“I got Heavens-hard drunk for sixteen year afore I took to this; but this don't hurt me, not to speak of. And it takes away the hunger as well as wittles, deary.” – The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

When you think of Charles Dickens, you probably imagine the respectable older gentleman with a big, bushy beard. He was the master story-teller, and the writer of family values, penning some of the most famous stories in the English language; Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and, of course, A Christmas Carol. But beneath this respectable façade was an enigmatic and at times turbulent private life, lived within a stark and troubled world.

Join us on this new tour, Sex, Gin & Opium as we tear back the layers of respectability and explore the seedier side of Victorian London, through the eyes of the museum collection. As you are taken through the historic London home of Charles Dickens, you’ll be immersed into Dickens’s world of boozy parties, illicit romances and dangerous medical treatments. A world of sex workers and opium dens, social neglect and familial betrayal.

Why did Dickens’s daughter marry the same man twice? What did Dickens mean when he wrote of a ‘fictitious and evanescent’ happiness? And what every day spice was used as a Victorian narcotic?

We’ll answer all these questions and much, much more as we delve into a world of Sex, Gin & Opium.

The guided tour lasts approximately 1 hour.

Book Now, or contact our events team on events@dickensmuseum.com.