Dickens’ writing chalet arrived at Gad’s Hill Place at Christmas 1864, as a flat-pack, in 58 crates – but where from
It is often stated that the chalet was manufactured at Innsbruck. However, supporting evidence for this is scant.[1] Also, no manufacturer of prefabricated buildings has, thus far, been found near Innsbruck. It is, though, reliably reported that the chalet came to England from Paris,[2] and that the assembly instructions were in French, rather than German.
Is it therefore possible that the chalet was made in or near to Paris, and not Innsbruck?
Design
Around 1824, the businessman Benjamin Delessert, whose family came from the Pays de Vaud (Vaux) (western Switzerland), had a Swiss chalet re-erected in his park at Passy, near to Paris.[3] Although this does not confirm that it was a prefabricated building, it does suggest it could have been a structure for leisure.
The source article goes on to state that châteaux were becoming increasingly fashionable around Paris with a design characterised by:
- a wooden structure on a stone base;
- an external staircase leading to the principal upper floor;
- a broadly overhanging pitched roof, supported by decorative brackets;
- and balconies with pierced/cut-out balustrades.
Dickens’s chalet closely conforms to this—a timber structure on a masonry base, an external staircase to the upper floor, a broadly overhanging pitched roof with decorative brackets, and balconies with pierced balustrades. Again, this only confirms that buildings of the design of Dickens’s chalet were being manufactured in Paris by the mid-nineteenth century.
The Chalet in the garden of Eastgate House, Rochester, Kent – in its better days
Brick base
Portability
Dickens’ writing chalet arrived at Gad’s Hill Place at Christmas 1864, as a flat-pack, in 58 crates.
In 1864, Alfred-Daniel Bing published an account of a French export-building business that had been established in 1860. Buildings were manufactured in Paris, assembled experimentally before dispatch, to check they could be assembled by someone without building skills, before being dismantled and exported for re-erection at their destination.[4]
This confirms that there was a flat-pack building system being used in Paris by 1864. The practicality of Dickens’ chalet being assembled by those with limited building skills is attested to, to some extent, by Dickens believing that he and some friends could assemble it—albeit unsuccessfully!
Again, this does not confirm that Dickens’ chalet was manufactured in Paris, but it adds credence to the possibility of it being manufactured somewhere other than Innsbruck.
Acquisition by Charles Fechter
It is generally held that the chalet was presented to Dickens by Charles Fechter, but a news report, published shortly after Dickens’ death, stated that it was presented to him by a few Swiss admirers.[5] This could have added to the possibility that the chalet came from the Innsbruck area, but the reported timings are wrong in that the chalet was at Gad’s Hill Place in 1864, not 1868 as the report suggests.
Before settling into his major English career, Charles Fechter was a prominent member of the Paris theatre scene; he therefore could have had the means to acquire the chalet, and would have had extensive connections within Paris which could have assisted with its acquisition; no similar connection has been found between Fechter and Innsbruck.
Logistics
An Innsbruck origin was logistically entirely possible, but it would have required the 58 crates, containing the chalet, to travel roughly 600 miles—overland—to Paris before beginning the journey to England.
Water transport would have offered the most practical means, in the mid-19th century, for transporting large loads – and there was such a route between Paris and Higham.
The Seine provided a navigable freight route from Paris through Rouen to its estuary, with Le Havre. Both had ports which would have been equipped to load/unload large consignments onto a seagoing vessel that could cross the Channel to reach London. (There does not appear to have been a direct maritime navigation along the Seine to Paris in 1864.)
The last leg of the journey, between London and Higham, could also have been made by water as the Medway Canal to Higham remained navigable until 1934. John Counchman, who eventually assembled the chalet, recalls that it arrived at Higham from London by water, [6] suggesting this means of conveyance was used.
A barge could have taken the chalet components from London to Gravesend, where there were facilities for them to be transferred to another vessel. This, though, may not have been necessary as the Medway Canal had sufficient depth and width for a Thames barge with a draft of around 4ft. to continue onto Higham.
At the Higham terminus, there was a wharf that was used to unload manure—hence it being known as ‘Dung Wharf’.[7] Here, the barge could have been unloaded, and the crates transferred to carts for the final 1.5-mile leg of the journey to Gad’s Hill Place.
So where does this leave us—Innsbruck or Paris?
We still don’t know where Dickens’ chalet was manufactured. Innsbruck remains possible, but the evidence usually offered for this seems remarkably thin. We know, though, that the chalet travelled to Gad’s Hill Place from Paris, which was Fechter’s old theatrical stomping ground, and that the assembly instructions were in French.
It is also questionable whether it would have made economic sense to manufacture the chalet at Innsbruck and haul it to Paris to sell or to export. The manufacturer just could not compete on price with those making prefabricated chalets in the vicinity of Paris.
So when the local bookie eventually opens a book on where Dickens’ chalet was constructed, my pound is going on Paris.
Geoff Ettridge aka Geoff Rambler
5 Oct. 2026
I would like to record my thanks to the City of Rochester Society for funding the printing of what is probably the most comprehensive history of the chalet – “The Miracle of Survival that is Dickens’ Chalet”. It is being sold to raise funds for the chalet restoration fund now being held by the Friends of Eastgate House. Copies can be obtained from the Cathedral shop and Baggins, priced at £9. Also from me, subject to an additional amount for postage; email me at geoff.rambler@me.com.
Geoff Ettridge
[1]The Innsbruck claim appears in a 2012 Peninsula Times account produced in connection with the Rochester & Chatham Dickens Fellowship’s chalet appeal. It states that, despite being called Swiss, the chalet “was actually made near Innsbruck.” Crucially, the article gives no source for that assertion. Alan S. Watts, Hon. General Secretary of the Dickens Fellowship, in his “Dickens at Gad’s Hill”, makes no mention of the origin of the chalet.
[2] John Foster – The life of Charles Dickens. Vol 3. Published 1874
[3] “Chalet système Seiler,” L’Illustration, Journal Universel, no. 703, 16 August 1856, p. 101. Article in Chateaux, Villas and Folies
[4] Alfred-Daniel Bing, De l’exportation de constructions habitables: branche nouvelle de l’industrie française créée en 1860 (Paris, 1864). Translation: “The complete assembly on site, and practical testing before the dispatch of all the parts of each building, constitute the trial which alone makes it possible for our buildings to be re-erected by persons more or less unfamiliar with the building trade.”
[5] Norfolk News, 25 June 1870
[6] “A Week’s Tramp in Dickens-land.”
[7] From 1900 coal would be unloaded at Higham for use by British Uralite.
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