Charles Dickens' desk secured with heritage grant

Dickens' desk and chair at 48 Doughty Street in London Credit: National Heritage Memorial Fund/PA Wire

The desk where Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations and his final, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood has been saved for the nation - and will be preserved on display in London.

The Charles Dickens Museum in the capital has been given a grant of more than £780,000 by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) to buy the desk and chair which he used in his final home, Gad's Hill Place in Kent.

They had been passed down through the Dickens family after the author's death in 1870 but were auctioned for the Great Ormond Street Charitable Trust in 2004.

Since then, the furniture where Dickens sat to write Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood has been in private ownership, and could have been sold at public auction if it had not been secured with the grant from the NHMF.

The desk and chair, which were made famous in two paintings begun the year he died, the Empty Chair by Luke Fildes and Dickens' Dream by RW Buss, are already on display at the Charles Dickens Museum at the author's former home in London.

Robert Moye, director of the Charles Dickens Museum, said: "We are delighted to have been able to acquire Charles Dickens' iconic writing desk and chair for permanent display in his study at 48 Doughty Street.

"They hold a unique place in our literary heritage and, as we embark on our exhibition exploring The Mystery of Edwin Drood, it is timely that the desk he used when writing his final novel has been secured for the benefit of all our visitors."