Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is considered to be one of the greatest English novelists of the Victorian period. Dickens’s works are characterized by attacks on social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. Rochester and the surrounding countryside are where Charles Dickens spent many happy years. both as a child and later in life when he returned to live in the area. The Charles Dickens Centre can be found in Eastgate House, a delightful Elizabethan house which is of great architectural and historic significance in itself.