Birmingham Town Hall

With the release on 13 November of the film ‘Ebenezer’, featuring actor Johnny Depp in the title role (will it surpass the critically acclaimed 1951 film with Alistair Sim in the role of Scrooge?), we take a look into Birmingham’s important role in the popularity of the Charles Dickens’ book “A Christmas Carol.” In 1853, during a visit to the city Dickens had promised to return and read his book to an audience, and he hoped the reading would raise funds for the Birmingham and Midland Institute, an organisation that promotes education and learning. On Boxing Day 1853, Charles Dickens stood in Birmingham Town Hall, in front of a backdrop of a drawing room, his only prop a large armchair, and read for the very first time from arguably his most well-known, and almost certainly his most-loved, book “A Christmas Carol.” According to the Birmingham Mercury published on Christmas Eve, tickets were priced at 6d (about £3 today). Bunches of holly ‘were so tastefully wreathed about the place, winking their little fiery red eyes so comfortably on the people below that there could be no mistake about it being Christmas time.’ A smile ‘broke through his moustache’ and he began reading the full version of his book. A few days later, Dickens returned to Birmingham Town Hall and read a condensed alternative before an audience estimated at 1,700 to 2,000 working people. Dickens instructed that the tickets be priced so cheaply that even the poor could afford to buy one. As soon as he appeared on the platform the audience stood up and cheered him. Behind him was a maroon screen, beneath his feet a purple carpet. On his wooden reading desk, designed by himself, he held a copy of his book, poured a glass of water, and waited. “My good friends . . .” he began, “when I first imparted to the Committee of the projected Institute my particular wish that one of the evenings of my readings here, the main body of my audience should be composed of working men and their families I was animated by two desires: first by the wish to have the great pleasure of meeting you face to face at this Christmas time and accompany you myself through one of my little Christmas books: and second by a wish to have an opportunity of stating publicly on your presence and in the presence of the Committee, my earnest hope that the Institute will from the beginning recognise one great principle – strong in reason and justice – which I believe to be essential to the very life of such an institution.” His audience stood up and applauded him again. Dickens waited for silence and the audience sat down. “I have always wished to have the great pleasure of meeting you face to face at this Christmas time.” Then he opened his book and began to read: “Marley was dead: to begin with.” Mindful that it had taken him three and a quarter hours to read the book out on Boxing Day, Dickens edited and edited until the final result, having removed the descriptive passages and focussing on the dialogue, intensified the dramatic impact. The version he used, “A Christmas Carol: The Author’s Personal Prompt Copy as Scripted and Performed by Charles Dickens”, was reduced to two hours and finally an hour and a half. Except he did not read the book. He recited from memory, and acted the story, too. He ‘cast a thorough individuality about all the characters which brought them warm, living, and speaking, before everybody.’ In one moment, he spoke in the ‘cruel hard voice’ of Ebenezer Scrooge. He turned and was Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead business partner. He turned again and mimicked ‘the meek contented lisping of poor Bob Cratchit’, his poorly paid clerk, and even bent over and ‘sniffed and smelled’ the imaginary Christmas pudding and large goose. By all accounts his decision to focus on quality rather than quantity on the second reading was a triumph and his audience again rose to cheer and applaud him. At the end, during several rounds of applause, a working man in the audience rose and called for ‘three cheers! With three times three, the call having been responded to with the utmost enthusiasm.’ Dickens bowed respectfully and left the stage, walked to his dressing room and changed out of his clothes, which were drenched in sweat. On the morning of Saturday 31st January 1854, the Managing Committee of the Birmingham and Midland Institute entertained Mr. Dickens and his friends at breakfast at the Hen and Chickens on Constitution Hill, in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Captain Charles Tindal (later he was the Governor to the Birmingham branch of the Bank of England), Royal Navy, presided at the breakfast, having on his right and left Mr. and Mrs. Dickens, Mr. Wills, Editor of the Household Words, Mr. Frank Stone artist and actor, and author Mr. Wilkie Collins. Mr. Arthur Rutland officiated as Vice-president. After breakfast the gallant Chairman presented to Mrs. Dickens an elegant silver flower-stand, as a tribute of respect to her husband for the services he had rendered the Institute and the cause of literature generally. The stand, a very elegant one, was manufactured by Messrs. Elkington and Mason, Birmingham silver manufacturers. At the close of the presentation Mr. Dickens and his friends took their departure by the mid-day train for London. It is rumoured that on cold dark nights in late December, Dickens’ ghost returns to Birmingham, and some claim he reads again his story of Christmas absolution, a book that is far more than a simple Christmas-time story. A dark, shadowy ‘Victorian-looking’ figure, some claim smoking or holding a pipe, has been purportedly witnessed in the town hall’s corridors, which disappears when challenged. Such was the impact of Dickens’ book, some have claimed he “invented” Christmas, although Christmas cards had been sent since the 1840s, and Prince Albert brought the first Christmas trees over from Germany. The giving of presents to children became established after his book, so perhaps it would be fairer to say Dickens popularised what we now view as Christmas. Readers may be surprised to know that the phrase “Bah humbug” does not actually appear in the text as such; the word ‘bah’ does, twice, but does not immediately precede ‘humbug’. Dickens did, however, create a new word for the dictionary – ‘scrooge’ to mean a parsimonious, mean-spirited person. To Dickens a scrooge was someone who could change, the central character of a book that is also a religious homily on the necessity of mercy and love. And a Christmas story unlike no other. Dicken’s is not the only paranormal squatter in Birmingham Town Hall. In January 1833 there was an accident when two stonemasons were killed while working on the external carved pillars. William Badger and John Heap were crushed when a heavy bock of masonry fell. There are buried at Birmingham Cathedral, although some staff working in the evening at Birmingham Town Hall claim they have heard the quiet ‘tap-tap-tapping’ in various locations Badger and Heap still busy attempting to complete their unfinished task nearly two centuries ago? Birmingham Council House, which was once the site of a monastery, also has a resident ghost, that of Joseph Chamberlain, founder of the University of Birmingham. Accounts vary as to the sightings, but seem to centre on the mayor’s office. As well as being dressed in black (some claim wearing a black top hat), others claim that a lingering smell of flowers coincides with his appearance. Farther afield there is a story specifically relating to Platform 4 of Birmingham’s New Street Station. The station is built on the site of a cemetery and the consensus of opinion is that building on such sacred ground, as with the monasterial origins of the town hall’s location, can result in upsetting the spirits of those who have had their final resting place disturbed.