site unseen: Charles Dickens's Swiss Chalet, Rochester

Ask anyone to name Britain's second cathedral city (after Canterbury) and they usually reply York, Durham, St Paul's, Lincoln, Norwich....

All wrong. In fact the correct answer is Rochester, which should be one of those places that everyone visits and enjoys several times in their lifetime - but isn't.

Perhaps this is not a bad thing. A stroll down the High Street remains a joyous and uncrowded experience, confirming all that a Mr Jingle thought of Rochester: "Ah! fine place... glorious pile - frowing walls - tottering arches - dark nooks - crumbling staircases - Old cathedral too - earthy smell - pilgrim's feet worn away the old steps - little Saxon doors...."

Alfred Jingle was one of Charles Dickens's finest creations, immortalised in his novel The Pickwick Papers. Dickens, as always, knew precisely what he was writing about. Although born in Portsmouth in 1812, his family had soon moved to Chatham where his father, John, was employed at the Chatham Dockyards. Father and son often went on explorations of the Medway Towns, allowing the young boy to store away their ingredients for future literary use.

Many of the delights which thrilled Dickens remain today:

the Norman castle and cathedral within a stone's throw of each other, the 17th-century Guildhall, the old charity building established for "six poor travellers" as well as the busy waterway and the "moon-faced" clock over the High Street.

Admittedly, the ancient stone bridge which for centuries helped pilgrims safely across the Medway and offered a young Dickens several magnificent views has not survived - but at least the debris of this crossing, blown up by the Royal Engineers in 1857, formed the nearby Esplanade.

But perhaps the most authentic piece of Dickensia is an exotic structure located in the public garden behind Eastgate House. The house dates back to 1590 and is now part of the Charles Dickens Centre. Admirable though the centre is, it is the weird and wonderful two-storey building in the garden which remains my favourite.

This Swiss Chalet was a present from an actor-friend called Charles Fechter. He unexpectedly sent Dickens 58 boxes whose contents fitted together like a puzzle. The foreign-looking structure was placed in the garden of Dickens's home in nearby Gad's Hill and he used it as a summer house and study. The last words Dickens penned before his death in June 1870, in his unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood - in which Rochester appears as "Cloisterham" - were composed inside it.

After various adventures the chalet was acquired by the Dickens Fellowship and re-erected on its present site in 1961. The Swiss Chalet is in fact small but perfectly- formed - just like Rochester itself.

The Swiss Chalet is in the garden behind the Dickens Centre, Eastgate House, High Street, Rochester, Kent