Beacon of the Medway
Above: Riverside apartments at Chatham
For four centuries, Chatham’s raison d’être has been its naval dockyard and shipbuilding industries. Now it’s poised to become the cultural centre of Medway, a key feature of the Thames Gateway, Europe’s largest regeneration project.
Cable cars will cross the Medway and two stunning 20-storey residential towers are planned to mark each end of a ‘linear plaza’ with a theatre, art galleries and upmarket apartments, the scheme designed by award-winning architect Dr Ken Yeang.
Chatham is an exhilarating, lively place linked with Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens and Lord Nelson, but its path to success has been strewn with gritty realities. Originally a sleepy agricultural and fishing community, its convenient, protected harbour attracted the burgeoning Tudor navy, and a thriving shipbuilding tradition soon followed.
Chatham is poised to become the cultural centre of the Medway
During the 18th century the town expanded at an unsustainable rate, and overcrowding bred disease and debauchery, with red light districts such as Full-A-Love Lane, and Sly Kate’s (Slicketts) Hill, frequented by drunken soldiers and sailors. Inadequate sanitation led to a high mortality rate, and cheap timber housing, thrown up to alleviate the accommodation crisis, succumbed to two disastrous fires that devastated the town.
However, Chatham in the 21st century is tipped to be the next Canary Wharf. The dockyard, now a wonderful living museum, is a magnet for tourists, while Medway Renaissance, the name for the regeneration team within Medway council, which is responsible for overseeing all the Thames Gateway projects, is transforming the waterfront and the town centre.
Strongly supporting this post-dockyard success is transport: new high-speed rail links arriving in 2009 will mean that east London is only half an hour away, making Chatham commuter land, with a likely consequent leap in property prices.
The dockyard, now a wonderful living museum, is a magnet for tourists
The Chatham Centre and Waterfront Development Framework is a plan to create a more unified city, with redeveloped riverside areas. The Waterfront (between Sun Pier in the centre of Chatham, and the Command House pub) is the subject of three proposed designs being considered, all prepared by Dr Yeang.
One of these shows the expanse framed by two stunning 20-storey residential towers. Between the towers, along a ‘linear plaza’ will be a series of striking three- to eight-storey buildings that include a theatre, arts and entertainment venues, shops, restaurants, bars, community centre and conference facilities.
Ideas include a riverside park, and a theatre/community centre suspended over the water, plus a cable car system across the river Medway. A network of walkways will link the waterfront to the town. Locals have been given the chance to express views on these options and a decision will be made in July.
Other town centre improvements have been planned by a design team led by McCreanor Lavington. They will include a new hotel, additional office space, improvements to pedestrian routes, station and buildings in the area known as The Brook. It encompasses the imaginative expansion and refurbishment of the Pentagon shopping centre. A further team lead by Urban Initiatives has produced plans for a new station, office quarter and bus interchange.
Plenty of regeneration has already occurred, notably Chatham Maritime, a large area near the Historic Dockyard converted to a busy residential and business area, including a Dickens’ World tourist attraction. There’s a 300 berth marina and a Dockside retail outlet, comprising 80 shops that opened in 2003, plus a new campus for the Universities of Medway. And 1,000 homes have been built on St Mary’s Island, the site of the original dockyard.
The council is especially keen to preserve Chatham’s historical links and is applying for World Heritage Site Status for Chatham Dockyard and its defences. The project manager, Joanne Cable, says: “The dockyard sites are of international significance. Chatham dockyard is the world’s finest surviving defended dockyard from the Great Age of Sail. World Heritage status will contribute to Medway renaissance ambitions and ensure that its roots are not lost.”
Famous Chatham Residents
Sir John Hawkins
This Elizabethan Treasurer of the Navy set up a pension scheme, known as the ‘Chatham Chest’, where money was gathered in an oak chest for distribution to the needy. He also established an Alms House, Sir John Hawkins Hospital, in the High Street.
Charles Dickens
In 1817, dockyard pay clerk John Dickens and family, including the future novelist Charles, moved to a three-storey building in Ordnance Terrace. Chatham was described by Dickens’s biographer John Forster, as ‘the birthplace of his fancy’.
Phineas Pett
This famous resident was a master ship builder and given the post of ‘keeper of the plank yard’ and lived in the manor house. His son, Peter, also a master shipwright, prevented a royalist uprising and dock takeover in 1648.
Samuel Pepys
Between 1660 and 1673 Pepys was Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, which governed the dockyard. During his service, Pepys campaigned for the suffering workers, whose wages were unpaid for long periods.
Captain James Douglas
This army officer and amateur archeologist supervised excavations for Chatham Lines and the Amherst Redoubt, and made drawings of the artifacts and bones uncovered.
Lord Nelson
Twelve-year-old Horatio Nelson enlisted at Chatham, and his famous ship The Victory was later built there.
John Newton
This sailor-turned-clergyman wrote the words to the hymn Amazing Grace. At 17, lured to Chatham from Essex to visit his girlfriend Polly, he was captured there by a press gang, and forced to serve as an able Seaman on HMS Harwich.
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