Dickens World proves too popular

Staff at the attraction are dressed as Dickensian characters

A £62m theme park celebrating the life of Charles Dickens has proved so popular it has had to turn people away two days after opening.

Dickens World, a covered four-acre attraction in Chatham, Kent, closed its queue at 1530 BST on Sunday because it was so long.

Director of attractions, Kevin Christie, said they had shut it early to make sure everyone waiting got in.

The attraction's centrepiece is a boat ride through Dickensian England.

Last admission

Mr Christie said: "When I woke up and saw it raining I knew that it was going to be busy. Chatham Maritime became the hub of Chatham as a whole.

"There was a one-and-half to two hour long queue. People expect to queue for visitor attractions such as ours on a bank holiday [weekend] when it's raining.

"We stopped the queue at 1530 because the last admission is at 1700 and we wanted to make sure we didn't disappoint anyone."

Dickens World opened on Friday following a six-week delay that was caused by problems with materials supplied for interactive shows.

The theme park has been built on derelict dockland close to where the writer lived as a child.

Managers hope it will attract 300,000 visitors a year.