London's Charles Dickens Museum has announced that a GBP3.2m refurbishment project will get underway in April after the attraction confirmed "sufficient funds" were now in place.

The museum is due to close from 9 April until December in order for work to be carried out in time to open for Dickensian Christmas celebrations in the novelist's bicentenary year.

Under plans for the Great Expectations scheme, two listed buildings will undergo restoration work to cater for increasing visitor number, which will involve necessary structural repairs.

Access improvements and the reinterpretation of collections are also to be carried out during the refurbishment, which is part-funded with the help of a GBP2m Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

During the closure of the Charles Dickens Museum, it is hoped that other attractions will be able to borrow from its collections to help mark the 200th anniversary of the author's birth.

A museum spokesperson said: "The museum's redevelopment is the most significant legacy project of the bicentenary; it will enable us to be open in 2013 when most of the bicentenary activities will have ended.

"The redeveloped museum will have greater capacity to serve all those whose interest in Dickens has grown during 2012 as well as those who discover Dickens for the first time."

Details: www.dickensmuseum.com