The Charles Dickens Museum, the author’s former Bloomsbury home and only surviving London residence, re-opened today following a major refurbishment. The building has been transformed and is now double the size, in celebration of Dickens’s bicentenary year.

As well as restoring the house at 48 Doughty Street – Dickens’s home at the start of his career and the place where he wrote classics Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby – and opening the house’s attic and kitchen for the first time, the museum has expanded into neighbouring 49 Doughty Street.

The adjacent building has been converted into a state-of-the-art Visitor and Learning Centre with rooms available for events, study and reading facilities, as well as facilities for exploring the Dickens museum’s digitised collection. The new extension to the building and a lift in No 49 now mean the museum has hugely improved step-free access to the original house at No 48, opening it up through hidden access doors on the basement, ground, first and second floors.

Pop into the new museum, and you’ll be able to walk around rooms decorated as Dickens would have known them. Each room reflects a different part of Dickens’s world; his reading desk can be seen in the drawing room, where he would have entertained guests with readings from his work, whilst the master bedroom will display personal items that have never been on display before. The second bedroom, where his sister-in-law Mary died aged 17, reflects on Dickens’s relationship with mortality and will feature the museum’s latest acquisition, an extremely rare set of photographic prints showing the 1865 rail crash which Dickens himself was involved in.

In the attic, visitors can learn more about Dickens’s difficult childhood and his literary and social legacy, before moving next door into the new wing at No 49 to explore further collections of Dickensiana.

Visit dickensmuseum.com to find out more.

Dickens: Dark London, Museum of London

Museum of London has launched an interactive graphic novel to coincide with its Dickens and London exhibition. Accompany Dickens on his night time walks and experience the darker side of Dickensian London in this app, based on Dickens’ short stories. Dickens: Dark London is illustrated by David Foldvari and voiced by actor Mark Strong. New editions will be released monthly. Dickens: Dark London, iPhone and iPad only, first edition free, subsequent editions, £1.49

Treasures by The British Library

Get your fingers on a handwritten draft of Nicholas Nickleby with The British Library’s Treasures app. This fascinating manuscript from the library’s collection is now available to view in a digital format on your phone, and shows the corrections and alterations Dickens made to the story. Among the other, erm, treasures on the app are sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, a first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and audio excerpts from the library’s expert curators. iPhone and Android editions (£2.39), HD iPad edition (£3.49)

Dickens Map on Spottd

Find and visit highlights of Dickensian London on location-based sharing app Spottd. The Dickens map pinpoints famous locations from his novels, as well as some of Dickens’ own favourite haunts, including his family home in Camden; The Prospect of Whitby pub; and The Old Curiosity Shop on Portsmouth Street (often cited as the inspiration for the novel of the same name). Spottd, iPhone only, free

What do you think of these apps and are there any we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below?

7 February 2012 marks 200 years since Dickens’ birth and institutions and organisations all over the world are staging a variety of cultural events to celebrate.

The programme, called Dickens 2012, is being co-ordinated by the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London and patrons include Sir Derek Jacobi, Peter Ackroyd and Claire Tomalin.

In London – the city that Dickens more than anyone else helped to document and mythologise – venues include the British Library, BFI Southbank and of course the Charles Dickens Museum. The main highlights are:

• Dickens and London at the Museum of London
  See original Dickens’ manuscripts and discover what London was like in Victorian times. Until 10 Jun
• Dickens on Screen at the BFI Southbank
  The largest ever retrospective of film and TV works based on or inspired by Charles Dickens. Until 28 Feb
• A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural at The British Library
  Discover Dickens’ fascination with the supernatural and how it features in his writing. Until 4 March
• Charles Dickens: Life and Legacy at the National Portrait Gallery
  A unique collection of prints, drawings, and photographs illustrating Dickens’ life and circle. Until 22 April

Other Dickens 2012 events are at the V&A Museum of Childhood, the V&A itself and there’s even a Dickens book club at Foyles bookshop. (My 2012 resolution is to finally finish Little Dorrit).

For more information on Dickens 2012 visit www.dickens2012.org. And use the comments below to let us know if you’ve enjoyed any of the bicentenary events, or even your favourite Dickensian London spot.

If you’re looking to boost your stamp collection, 2012 is the year to do it!

Royal Mail is issuing some interesting new collections featuring London events and figures this year, starting with the Olympic “definitive”, or everyday stamps, which go on sale today.

Olympic and Paralympic Stamps
The new stamps feature the Olympic and Paralympic logos, as well as an image of the Queen’s head, and are set to brighten up millions of letters.

After the Games, Royal Mail will issue a set of Gold Medal stamps to honour all Team GB victories.

Diamond Jubilee Stamps
Royal Mail will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with three new stamp sets:

• House of Windsor stamps featuring the five monarchs from the start of the 20th century, issued 2 Feb
• A miniature sheet with six portraits of the Queen taken from banknotes, coins and stamps issued during her reign, including a 1st class diamond blue definitive, which replaces the standard 1st class gold definitive during the Jubilee Year, issued 6 Feb
• A set of eight stamps featuring images of the Queen during the six decades of her reign, issued 31 May

More London Stamp News
That’s not all! Look out for special Charles Dickens stamps in June to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth, and an upcoming collection on British Fashion Designers (hope there’ll be a few Londoners there too).

While you await these new collections, keep your inner philatelist occupied at the British Postal Museum & Archive, where you can see stamps from all over the world.

One of the best of these is the Dickens and London exhibition at the Museum of London.

Visit, and you’ll see paintings, photographs, costumes and objects illustrating the world Dickens lived in and captured brilliantly in his books. Don’t miss the chance to check out Dickens’s rarely seen hand-written manuscripts, which will also be on display.

This Christmas, we’re offering you the chance to win two tickets to the exhibition, and, to make your experience a memorable one, we’re throwing in a night’s stay at the gorgeous Art Deco Thistle Hotel in Marble Arch. As well as staying in an Executive room, you can enjoy breakfast and dinner in the Marmor Grill.

Enter now for your chance to win this fantastic Dickens prize!

Dickens often walked the streets of London at night to piece together ideas for stories and characters. This exhibition takes you on a similar tour of Dickensian London, showing how the city he called his “magic lantern” inspired his famous tales.

Like any Dickens novel, there’s plenty of information about the grimy, poverty-stricken side of London in the 1800s. But there are also cheerier aspects on display, such as a beautiful painting of people enjoying Hyde Park in the summer, strolling, relaxing and playing – just like Londoners do today.

My favourite exhibits were:

• Handwritten letters by Charles Darwin, plus one of his own inkwells
• A display of period doorknockers (straight out of A Christmas Carol!)
• Dickens’ writing desk and chair

Also, Museum of London have added to their excellent app collection with Dickens: Dark London, a gorgeous-looking, graphic novel app, with monthly additions, available from 9 December.

Dickens and London, Museum of London, 9 Dec-10 Jun (admission charge). Get two-for-one entry to Dickens and London with our special offer

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More….

Celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens in 2012 with more Dickens-themed activities in London:

• The Charles Dickens Museum: See where the author lived between 1837 and 1839
• Meet Ebenezer Scrooge: Visit one of Dickens’ most famous characters in the grottos of Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands between 27 December and 1 January, and win a prize if you can cheer him up!
• The British Library: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural examines how Dickens used supernatural phenomena in his stories. Until 4 March
• BFI Southbank: Dickens on Film showcases archive footage of classic Dickens adaptations and examines his contribution to film and television history. 15 December
• Charles Dicken’s London: Our guide to the London landmarks featured in Charles Dickens’ novels

The My London Sticker Collection offers children a fun way to discover more about London’s landmarks, as well as creating a great “personalised” guide book with colourful pictures of the city.

Children can collect stickers of everything London; from famous sporting venues like Wembley Stadium and Lord’s Cricket Ground to notable Londoners such as Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill.

The book, which costs just £1 from newsagents and shops like WH Smith, also contains “money-off vouchers” and exclusive deals and discounts for a variety of family activities including West End shows, the London Dungeon and the Houses of Parliament.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one rousing, heart-warming carol singing session!

Even the coldest Scrooge’s can’t fail to feel Christmassy once they hear the opening bars of those famous Christmas tunes.

And this Christmas, London’s hoping to host the world’s biggest ever carol sing-a-long!

To celebrate the world premiere of Disney’s A Christmas Carol in London, and the first-ever co-ordinated Christmas light switch-on across the capital, we’re asking you to help us find London’s favourite Christmas Carol.

The song below with the most votes will be sung at London’s Christmas Carol on 3 November across the city, as London comes together to break the world record for the largest-ever Christmas carol sing-a-long!

Help choose the song that London will sing by voting for your favourite Christmas carol below:

[poll id="10"]