Charles Dickens' Rochester
Swiss Chalet

The Swiss Chalet was given as a gift to Dickens by his friend, actor and theatre manager Charles Fechter. It arrived at Dickens' home at Gads Hill in 94 pieces. Dickens had the chalet erected on the opposite side of the road from Gads Hill and later had a tunnel built under the Dover Road so that he could more easily access the chalet. He used the upper floor of the chalet as a study and wrote his last lines there on the day he died in June 1870.

After Dickens' death the chalet spent time at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham where it could be toured for a small admission. Later it was moved to Cobham Park. In the 1960s the chalet was restored and moved to its present location in the garden behind Eastgate house where John Jasper courted Rosa Budd in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.