We're going to Dickens World

By Sean O'Neal | April 13, 2007 | 8:29pm

Aux Features Newswire

If rollercoasters based around rock bands and crummy animated movies have you longing for a theme park that captures your particularly erudite tastes, consider a visit to the new Dickens World in Chatham, Kent, based on the works of Charles Dickens. The $115 million dollar park is nearing completion in the naval shipyard where the author's father once worked as a clerk, featuring attractions like the Great Expectations Boat Ride and a Dickensian Shopping Mall.

The entire park is being overseen by experts from the Dickens Fellowship to ensure that the "dark, dirty, and dank London populated by thieves, murderers, and ghosts" has the appropriate air of authenticity. Ross Hutchins, manager of Dickens World, insists that he is not out to "Disneyfy Dickens", adding that were the Victorian author alive today, "He would probably have built the place himself."