Star Hotel, Great Yarmouth his tenure he made several improvements to the tavern, adding a billiard room and dining room to replace the stable block. In 1848 Charles Dickens visited and stayed in Great Yarmouth while gathering material for his book "David Copperfield" and many of the town's buildings have their place in the book including the "Star", which becomes the Inn where David and Steerforth stayed. In 1819, the "Star Tavern" was the Yarmouth terminus for the royal mail coach, which left for London every day at 2:00 pm. By 1845, the tavern was also the terminus for mail for Birmingham, and a
Charles Dickens single day. His favourite actor was Charles Mathews, and Dickens learnt his "monopolylogues", (farces in which Mathews played every character), by heart. Then, having learned Gurney's system of shorthand in his spare time, he left to become a freelance reporter. A distant relative, Thomas Charlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors' Commons, and Dickens was able to share his box there to report the legal proceedings for nearly four years. This education was to inform works such as "Nicholas Nickleby", "Dombey and Son", and especially "Bleak House"—whose vivid portrayal of the machinations and bureaucracy of the legal system did much