Scrooge Live! at The Sherborne
A Christmas Carol returns to the very house where Dickens read
On a cold December afternoon in 1854, Charles Dickens stood in Sherborne’s Literary and Scientific Institute and began to read:
“Marley was dead: to begin with.”
That reading – taken from the first chapter of A Christmas Carol – took place on Thursday, 21 December 1854, in the lecture room of the Institute in Newland, in the former stable block of Sherborne House. Today, that same stable block forms part of The Sherborne.
This December, we’re honouring that extraordinary moment with a one-night-only event that brings Dickens’ story alive in a way he might just have approved of:
Scrooge Live! — classic cinema, live orchestra, candlelight, and a house steeped in Dickensian history.
Charles Dickens, late 1850s (NPG x36208)
170 years to the day: from Dickens’ voice to the silver screen
On 21 December, exactly 170 years to the day since Dickens read Marley’s Ghost here in Sherborne, we invite you to step back into his world.
We’ll be screening the 1951 film Scrooge, starring the incomparable Alastair Sim – widely considered one of the most iconic screen versions of Ebenezer Scrooge. But this isn’t just a film screening.
The film will be accompanied by a live, reimagined score performed by the FB Pocket Orchestra, complete with atmospheric sound effects timed perfectly to the on-screen action. Every clink of chain, sweep of snow and ghostly whisper is brought into the room, wrapping you in the story as it unfolds.
It’s Dickens, but turned all the way up:
🎬 A beloved black-and-white classic on the big screen
🎼 A live orchestra transforming the soundtrack before your eyes and ears
🕯️ A house that remembers Dickens — and still carries his story in its bones
A night that begins with feasting and fizz
Your evening doesn’t begin when the lights go down – it starts the moment you step through the doors.
From 6.30pm, you’ll arrive to:
Sparkling wine and festive welcome drinks
Beautifully presented feasting platters, designed for sharing and lingering over
The warm buzz of conversation as guests gather in this extraordinary historic house
Our bar will be open throughout the evening, with carefully chosen wines, drinks, and festive touches to match the mood of the night.
At around 7.30pm, you’ll take your seat as the lights soften, the film begins, and the FB Pocket Orchestra’s live score draws you straight into Victorian London.
Quentin Blake’s A Christmas Carol by candlelight
Alongside Scrooge Live!, The Sherborne is currently home to Quentin Blake’s exhibition, A Christmas Carol – a beautifully curated display of original illustrations for Dickens’ much–loved tale.
While entry to the exhibition is not included in the Scrooge Live! ticket price, you can plan your visit so that you experience both:
Visit during our usual opening hours to explore Quentin Blake’s artwork at your own pace
Then return in the evening for Scrooge Live!, stepping back onto the same historic site where Dickens once read “Marley’s Ghost”
In the galleries, you’ll be able to:
Stand just inches away from original Quentin Blake illustrations
Meet familiar characters — Scrooge, Marley’s Ghost, the Cratchits — in Blake’s instantly recognisable, expressive line
Soak up the atmosphere of a story that has travelled from Victorian page, to drawing board, to screen, and now into The Sherborne’s rooms
Seen together – the exhibition by day and the live-scored film by night – A Christmas Carol becomes a richly layered experience across the whole site.
A house shaped by Macready, Dickens and the Literary Institute
To understand why A Christmas Carol matters so deeply at The Sherborne, you have to look at the remarkable chapter in its history when William Charles Macready called Sherborne House home.
In the 19th century, Sherborne House was more than a fine building in Dorset; it was the heart of a vibrant intellectual and artistic community. The house looked out over formal grounds with a walled garden and orchard, but inside, ideas were just as carefully cultivated.
William Charles Macready (1793–1873) – a renowned Shakespearean actor-manager – retired to Sherborne in 1850, renting Sherborne House from Lord Digby of Sherborne Castle.
In 1851, he became President of the Sherborne Literary and Scientific Institution, founded a few years earlier as a Mutual Improvement Society. Under his leadership it grew quickly, offering lectures, a library and evening classes in subjects such as music, drawing and French for the working people of the town.
In June 1854, the Institute moved into larger premises in the former stables adjoining Sherborne House in Newland – the very building that is now The Sherborne (and today also home to Macintosh Antiques).
Image: William Charles Macready (1793-1873).
Macready not only taught and read there himself, but also invited his famous friends to give talks and readings – including William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens.
“Marley was dead: to begin with.” – Dickens in Sherborne
By the time Dickens came to Sherborne, he was already a literary superstar. He had published The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House and more, and his public readings were considered one of the great theatrical sensations of the age.
Preparations for his reading at Sherborne began in November 1854, with the committee hoping to raise funds for the Institute’s Library Fund. They initially planned to hold the event in the Town Hall, with tickets at five shillings – not unreasonable for such a celebrated author, but enough to cause mutterings in a market town just before Christmas.
When ticket sales were slower than hoped, the venue was moved to the Institute’s lecture room in Newland to ensure a full house – a decision that deeply annoyed Macready, who felt that Sherborne had not fully recognised Dickens’ stature.
And so, at 2pm on Thursday 21 December 1854, Dickens took to the lectern in the Institute and read “Marley’s Ghost” from A Christmas Carol to a packed, airless room. The reading lasted around two and a half to three hours, yet the audience remained entranced to the very end. One listener later described Dickens as slight and animated, with a clear, quick voice and a remarkable ability to inhabit multiple characters by voice alone.
The event raised £22 for the Library Fund – the equivalent of around £1,300 today. The committee used the money to buy a carefully chosen selection of books for the Institute’s library, including works by Dickens himself alongside poetry, history, science and philosophy. Those volumes, marked with special inscriptions, became a tangible legacy of Dickens’ day in Sherborne.
The Macready/Dickens screen and a rich cultural moment
Dickens’ visit was part of a wider, richly creative period for Sherborne House:
Macready’s presidency turned the Sherborne Literary and Scientific Institution into a lively centre for learning and culture, with classes, lectures and a growing library.
During his time here, Macready and Dickens were also associated with the creation of the Macready/Dickens Screen – a remarkable folding collage screen built up from prints and clippings, a kind of three-dimensional Victorian scrapbook reflecting their tastes, friendships and humour.
Today, that very Macready/Dickens Screen is on display at The Sherborne as part of our A Christmas Carol exhibition, reconnecting this extraordinary object with the house where it was created. Visitors can see it up close, alongside the wider story of Dickens, Macready and the Literary and Scientific Institution, as part of the building’s evolving cultural programme.
All of this – Macready’s residency, the Literary and Scientific Institution, Dickens’ visit, the collage screen, the gardens and the house itself – marks out Sherborne House as a place where stories, performance and imagination have been woven into the fabric of the building for generations.
A house that has lived this story
Sherborne House isn’t a backdrop for this event; it’s a central character.
These are the same walls and adjoining buildings linked with Dickens’ visit in 1854.
The same site where the Literary and Scientific Institute once crammed in a “suffocating” audience for his reading of “Marley’s Ghost”.
The same town, gathering again to be moved, unsettled, amused, and ultimately uplifted by Scrooge’s transformation.
Throughout the evening, you’ll be able to enjoy:
Period details and historic features that anchor the experience in the 19th century
A sense of being part of a living, unfolding story – not just watching one on screen
Thoughtfully curated lighting and sound that draw out the drama and warmth of the narrative
This isn’t just a night out. It’s a chance to feel the connection between past and present, and to stand in the overlap.
Sherborne House, c.1850s.
The perfect winter’s evening
Scrooge Live! at The Sherborne offers a rare combination:
A nationally significant historic moment, marked where it actually happened
A beloved classic film, elevated with a live, contemporary score
Festive food, drink and atmosphere in a house finding new life as a vibrant cultural home
Come wrapped up in your Christmas finery, ready for a night that feels both wonderfully old-fashioned and thrillingly alive.
How to book
🎟️ Tickets are limited, and this event is selling quickly.
👉 Head to our What’s On page and look for “Scrooge Live!” to book your place.
Bring friends, family, or come as a special solo treat — however you join us, you’ll be part of a moment in The Sherborne’s story that we’ll be talking about for a long time to come.
Sources & further reading
Historical details in this article draw on research by local archives and partner organisations. For anyone who’d like to explore more, we recommend:
Old Shirburnian Society – “Marley’s Ghost: the day Charles Dickens came to Sherborne”
Marley’s Ghost: the day Charles Dickens came to SherborneFriends of Sherborne House / The Macready–Dickens Screen
Background on the screen’s history and conservation, and its journey back to Sherborne House: