Lewis Carroll at 7 Lushington Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Image: © Adrian Diack Taken: 12 Feb 2024

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass, was a regular visitor to Eastbourne. He spent 19 summer holidays in Eastbourne with his first visit being to 7, Lushington Road in 1877. This house, which is now a dental surgery, is shown in the photo. Among his many talents, Carroll was a keen photographer and one of the reasons he liked Eastbourne was because of the high levels of sunshine and good light during the summer. One of his photos of a girl on the beach at Eastbourne, was sold by Bonhoms in 2014 for £ 5,250. (I doubt if the photo would have qualified as a ‘geograph’ as it is a portrait photo taken at short distance and with no distinguishing features on the beach.) The high commercial value of the photo is mainly attributable to the celebrity status of the photographer. Through his annual visits to Eastbourne, Carroll became somewhat integrated into the town. As Charles Dodson, he had grown up in a high Anglican family and he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England on 22 December 1861. When in Eastbourne, Carroll assisted with the Sunday School at Christ Church on Seaside and one occasion he preached from the pulpit. The church register shows that he rented a pew solely as a place to lay his top hat so that he could be sure that it would not be sat on accidently during the service.

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