The Brook, Chatham

The Brook (), historically the Old Bourne River, is a significant street and area in Chatham, Kent, Chatham, Kent. Originating as a natural stream, it played a crucial role in the town’s early development. It was known for 19th century, 19th-century slums and public health issues. Today, it serves as a Trunk road, main road with civic and commercial functions.

History

The Brook is a route that follows the course of a formerly open stream (historically called the Old Bourne River). In its earliest days the Brook valley was a shallow watercourse ("a Stream, rivulet… now covered over") feeding into the River Medway. 

Romano-British Cremation Urn Burials

In 1907 in the United Kingdom, 1907–1910 in the United Kingdom, 1910, eleven Burial in Anglo-Saxon England, Romano-British cremation urn burials were uncovered on The Brook during construction of a mission church. Excavations for the church’s foundations encountered multiple inhumation pits and urn burials. Eleven pottery urns containing Cremation, cremated remains were recovered, with finds recorded in 1910. A Kent County Council report summarizes: "Eleven Romano-British culture, Romano-British urns were found in 1910, with pseudo Samian, Durobrivian and other wares". In Roman Britain, such urn burials typically represent the cremated remains of individuals interred in vessels; the number of urns suggests a small cemetery or ritual deposit.

After their discovery, the urns were briefly housed in the Chatham Technical Institute, a local museum and school. However, the assemblage has since been lost: the Sites and monuments record notes that the finds "are no longer in Chatham Technical Institute; they were dispersed some time ago", and their present whereabouts are unknown. Thus, detailed analysis of the pottery and human remains is limited to the 1911 in the United Kingdom, 1911 report by G. Payne and later summaries. Despite their dispersal, the urn burials at The Brook remain important evidence of Roman Empire, Roman-period activity and funerary practice in the Chatham area, complementing other nearby Romano-British culture, Romano-British Cemetery, cemeteries and settlements.

19th century on

By the early 19th century the stream had become heavily Pollution, polluted and surrounded by dense low-class housing, so that it was associated with Poverty in the United Kingdom, poverty and Diseases and epidemics of the 19th century, disease. Dr Thomas Stratton was "worried that the marines had caught cholera because they lived near the Brook." and he warned of the public health hazard posed by the foul stream. Over time the Brook was Culvert, culverted and built over (the modern road lies atop its course), and a formal sewerage and pumping scheme was installed in the 1920s, which opened in 1929 in the United Kingdom, 1929, to carry away the polluted water.

By the late 19th century, the open Brook had essentially been covered and the valley built up. In 1911 in the United Kingdom, 1911, Rochester, Kent, Rochester and Chatham jointly undertook a main drainage scheme, culminating in the opening of the Old Brook Pumping Station, Brook Pumping Station in September 1929. This brick pumping station (now a working museum) was designed to lift foul sewage from the low-lying Brook area into the new Outfall, sewer outfall, completing the town’s modern sewage system. During this period the old Brook valley was leveled into a Carriageway, roadway (now called The Brook) and the surrounding slums were gradually cleared. By 1930 in the United Kingdom, 1930, many of the dilapidated houses on and around The Brook had been demolished for health reasons. In the 1970s, the area underwent further redevelopment: the Pentagon Shopping Centre was built over former housing and alleys on the site, fundamentally reshaping the Grid plan, street grid around The Brook.

Sewerage History

Chatham’s first settlement, known as Ceteham, lay on low-lying marsh by the Medway Estuary and Marshes, Medway estuary, bounded by an Embankment (earthworks), earth embankment known as the Land Wall. Built in the 16th century, this causeway (roughly the line of modern Globe Lane) served as a Flood management, flood defense across the mouth of the Old Bourne River. An early tide mill stood on the Brook by the Late Middle Ages, late medieval period. The Land Wall’s embankment, together with a stone quay wall along the Medway, effectively turned the central part of Chatham into a "cupped hand" with poor natural drainage. By the 18th century the marshland south-east of the Land Wall had been drained and the Brook channelled into narrow open trenches and culverts that acted as primitive sewers. These covered drains, supplemented by countless cesspits, ran beneath the growing town. The population in the Brook area increased rapidly: in 1801 in the United Kingdom, 1801, Chatham had about 10,500 residents, rising to ~37,000 by 1901 in the United Kingdom, 1901. Over the 18th–19th centuries the former marsh was densely built up with poor housing and narrow alleys. The young Charles Dickens lived briefly at 18 St Mary’s Place, The Brook during 1821 in the United Kingdom, 1821–1822 in the United Kingdom, 1822 Throughout the 19th century, Waste management, waste disposal remained primitive – streets and houses relied on cesspits and old culverts for sewage, and in dry weather sanitation was notoriously bad. Even early 19th-century records, the court leet archives, noted increasing public-health concerns and pollutants killing off oyster beds and fish in the Medway.

For context, as of 2021 in the United Kingdom, 2021, Chatham’s estimated population is around 76,983.

Public Health Crises and Local Reform (19th century)

Chatham suffered disease outbreaks that underscored its sanitation failures. Sporadic cases of cholera appeared by the 1830s; notably, in spring 1832 a sailor in Chatham died of cholera (the first Kent case after entry from London). Chatham Dockyard endured cholera too: an 1832 dockyard epidemic prompted the Admiralty to order that any cholera-stricken worker be sent to hospital and Sick leave, paid during isolation. Further cholera epidemics and other contagious diseases (e.g. diphtheria in late Victorian era, Victorian times) struck Kent’s Medway, Medway towns, intensifying pressure for sanitary reform. In 1852, a board of health survey (by engineer Edward Gotto) documented Chatham’s diseases and "stinking drains, recommending modern sewers."

Under the Public Health Act 1848, Chatham adopted a formal Local board of health, Local Board of Health in 1849. This new board took over the medieval Court Leet’s civic duties (the Board of Health was effectively the town’s sanitary authority). Through the 1850s–1880s the Local Board (later called an Sanitary district, urban sanitary district) oversaw modest sewerage improvements. Reports and vestry minutes (Parish register, parish records) from this era mention hiring Night soil, scavengers to remove refuse, cleansing gutters, and draining swamps in an ad hoc fashion, though much waste still lay in open drains. The Brooklyn-style culverts in The Brook were occasionally cleared or relined, but no comprehensive system existed.

Victorian Expansion and Drainage Schemes

By the late 19th century, it became clear that Chatham, Kent, Chatham (together with neighbouring Rochester, Kent, Rochester and Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham) needed a unified solution. After surveying options, Chatham’s council established a drainage committee in 1911, under the mayor, Alderman E.A. Billingshurst, and engineer W.H. Radford. This committee developed plans for a Rochester & Chatham Joint Main Drainage Scheme. In 1920 in the United Kingdom, 1920 a formal Joint Sewerage District was constituted by government order (through the Ministry of Health (United Kingdom), Ministry of Health) for Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham, and the Rochester and Chatham Joint Sewerage Board was created.

Construction followed in the 1920s. The £650,000 scheme (over £34 million today) laid a large intercepting sewer from Chatham, under New Road and Gillingham, out to a treatment works at Motney Hill on the Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve, Rainham Marshes. The works included a pumping station on Solomons Road in Chatham’s Brook area to lift sewage from the low-lying town into the main outfall. The Old Brook Pumping Station, Brook Low Level Pumping Station opened on 25 September 1929, finalising the joint drainage scheme.

Engineering of the Main Drainage Works

The pumping station was designed to deal with Chatham’s chronic flooding and sewage. Its underground sewage tank has foundations about deep (cutting through the bed of the Brook), a major engineering challenge. The station’s machinery, now preserved, consisted of multiple pumps: two and two Blackstone centrifugal pumps, driven by electric motors, for normal and storm flows, plus two large pumps driven by Campbell diesel engines. In normal weather the smaller pumps handled up to per hour of sewage. In storm surges, the larger pumps boosted capacity to about /hour, discharging excess via a dedicated storm tower into the Medway.

During flood conditions, the station could even pump diluted effluent directly over the quayside into the river, minimizing street flooding. By 1979 in the United Kingdom, 1979, a modern electric pumping station replaced the old plant, and the Old Brook building survives as a scheduled monument and Museum, working museum.

Social History

19th-century slum conditions

By the early 19th century, Chatham had become a busy military and naval depot, spurring rapid population growth. The Brook ran through one of the town’s poorest neighborhoods, and over time, housing in the low-lying Brook valley deteriorated into a notorious slum district. Contemporary accounts note that this "once desirable area" of Chatham went into steep decline: by the 1800s it was synonymous with poverty, overcrowding and Diogenes syndrome, squalor. Hundreds of workers and their families crowded into tiny alleys and courts off The Brook – places with names like Cage Lane, Queen Street, Sly Kates (Slicketts) Hill and others – where 19th-century observers described a "moral element…difficult to subjugate". One long-time resident recalled that in the mid-20th century, Cage Lane — now known as Upbury Way, located north of The Brook, was regarded as so rough that local families kept away: "we considered ourselves to be a cut above Cage Lane," they recalled. The cellars and narrow courts here were poorly ventilated and subject to periodic flooding; local health reports complained that the Brook’s pollution was killing Oyster, oyster beds downstream. Overcrowding fostered sickness, vice and disorder. The Brook slums were said to attract large numbers of transients – especially naval and military men on shore leave – looking for cheap drink and company. Numerous Pub, public houses lined the valley. For example, the Duke of Cambridge, built 1856–1864, at Fair Row, at the eastern foot of The Brook) catered especially to officers and civilians from the nearby dockyard. The Mitre Hotel on High Street, demolished in 1934, was similarly renowned as a tavern for soldiers and sailors. In this environment police often faced crowds and riots: one study recounts that in the 1870s–80s Chatham was racked by "wild behaviour… descending into riot" on a regular basis, involving not only drunken soldiers and sailors but also local youths. It was said that merely arresting a rowdy brawler "set off a chain reaction" of stone-throwing mobs aiming to free their comrades. In short, by the mid-19th century Chatham’s Brook quarter had a "bowerbird of vice" reputation – the type of Dickensian slum quarter evoked in contemporary literature.

The Brook in Victorian Chatham: Red-Light District and Vice

The Brook – a narrow street linking Chatham’s dockyard to the High Street – gained a notorious reputation in the 19th century as a rough, disreputable quarter. By the late 1800s, contemporary observers noted that the once-desirable residential area around The Brook had become "identified with dreadful living conditions, not to say immoral and criminal activity". A 19th-century memoirist recalled that "the road that led from the dockyard gate to London went through an area of Chatham known as The Brook, notorious for many dens and brothels where sailors… could expect to be robbed". Police and reformers lamented that low-paid dockyard workers and transient soldiers were preyed upon here by unscrupulous Procuring (prostitution), madams. Dickens, who grew up at St Mary’s Place in The Brook, later depicted Chatham as a rowdy military town, for example, ''The Pickwick Papers'' notes crowds gathering in "the utmost bustle and excitement" for a military review, reflecting the town’s gritty character.

The Brook was lined with dozens of ordinary pubs, Beerhouse, beer-houses and Boarding house, lodging-houses – many associated in the public mind with prostitution. For example, an 1864 directory lists the White Lion at the eastern end of The Brook and the White Swan just above Cage Lane, among other Tavern, taverns along the street. Further west toward the High Street stood the Lord Nelson opposite Willmott Street and the Three Cups on the corner of Queen Street. (An 18th-century will likewise refers to the Three Cups pub ''on the Brook.)'' These establishments catered to the dockyard and garrison Customer, clientele. The local press of the era regularly reported fights and rowdy behavior in and around the Brook’s pubs, often linking them with prostitution. Letters to Kent newspapers complained of general disorderliness and the high number of prostitutes at The Brook’s drinking-houses. In short, The Brook and adjacent High Street were seen as the town’s red-light district, a place of cheap beer, gambling, and illicit rendezvous.

To police and clergy The Brook seemed a hotbed of vice. During the period when the Contagious Diseases Acts applied to Chatham (from 1864 until repeal in 1886), Special Branch (Metropolitan Police), plain-clothes Metropolitan police were dispatched into the military towns specifically to curb Sexually transmitted infection, venereal disease. Chatham was designated a “''subjected area''” under these Acts, meaning suspected prostitutes could be forcibly examined and, if found infected, confined for treatment. In practice, officers would sweep through areas like The Brook, arresting women on suspicion and requiring them to report for invasive medical inspections. One contemporary account explains: "Policemen… arrest[ed] suspected prostitutes… subjected [them] to what was often a forcible examination. If… venereal disease was present, the woman… [could be] taken to a lock hospital – so called because the patients were locked up – where she would be detained until cured, a process that could take months." Chatham even built its own purpose-built lock hospital in 1869 in the United Kingdom, 1869 to house and treat women detained under the Acts. These measures, however, were controversial: local reformers and national activists (notably Josephine Butler) criticized the Acts as unjustly targeting women and tacitly condoning prostitution. Once the Acts were suspended in 1883 in the United Kingdom, 1883 (and fully repealed in 1886 in the United Kingdom, 1886), police observations suggest that street prostitution around The Brook resurged, underscoring how pervasive the trade had been. An excerpt notes:"Statistical evidence relating to the ages of Kentish prostitutes is scarce and contradictory and has to be used with care. Of the 590 women admitted to the Chatham lock hospital during the six months to March 1871 in the United Kingdom, 1871, for example, only 35 (6 per cent) were under 20 years old."

Chatham’s 19th-century councils and Philanthropy, philanthropists also moved to reshape the Brook’s image through urban renewal. After Chatham became a municipal borough in 1890 in the United Kingdom, 1890, many of the oldest houses and pubs around The Brook were demolished as substandard or crime-ridden. Leading citizens had long complained that the narrow courts and alleys off the Brook were slums where disease spread easily. Reports from the 1870s describe The Brook as "badly drained and ventilated" and littered with mud, contributing to cholera and fever outbreaks. Civic reformers saw connection between this squalor and the area’s immoral reputation, and they targeted it for clearance. As a result, within a few years of incorporation the site of The Brook was partly re-planned: the old dens and brothels gave way to wider streets, municipal buildings (including the Chatham Town Hall, Town Hall and police station), and modern housing. By the early 20th century the city’s official histories noted that The Brook had been transformed from its Victorian disreputable past.

Throughout, Victorian Chatham’s newspapers and records provide glimpses of individuals involved. A few names of Procuring (prostitution), brothel-keepers and Prostitution, prostitutes appear in court reports, though the records are scattered. One 1865 in the United Kingdom, 1865 case, for example, charged a woman with keeping a "disorderly house" used for prostitution. Frequent police raids are noted: even into the 1920s, Chatham court papers show elderly dames… being sent to jail again and again for brothel-keeping in The Brook". Public houses themselves were sometimes accused of serving as fronts. In sum, contemporary language – whether in press or police reports – uniformly portrays The Brook as the town’s vice quarter. Its dens, disorderly houses and liquor-sodden alleyways were repeatedly criticized as scourges on public morality.

In summary, ''The Brook, Chatham'' was infamous in the Victorian era as a red-light district serving the dockyard and Royal Marine Barracks, Chatham, garrison. Historical sources confirm that it was densely packed with beer-houses and brothels, drawn in by the large transient population of sailors, soldiers and labourers. Enforcement of the Contagious Diseases Acts and later slum-clearance measures both reflected and reinforced its reputation. By the end of the 19th century the oldest parts of The Brook were razed in efforts to eliminate its "immoral and criminal" character. Modern historians and local , memoirists alike, emphasize that this small street embodied the darker side of Chatham’s Victorian boom – a legacy even Charles Dickens would have recognized in his depictions of military Chatham’s bustle and vice.

Charles Dickens

The author Charles Dickens spent his early childhood in Chatham, and his parents lived at 18 The Brook (officially 18 St. Mary’s Place) in 1821–1823. Dickens later recalled that time; his family’s modest six-room house sat next to a chapel on The Brook, and from its upper windows he could see the church and yards "precisely as described" in his story ''A Child’s Dream of a Star''. Dickens himself called Chatham "my boyhood’s home" and remembered "impressions…received" there in his youth.

Notable Buildings and Infrastructure

Post-medieval Tide Mill

A large Tide mill, tidal mill once occupied the northern end of The Brook, exploiting the Holborne Brook’s confluence with the River Medway. Documentary evidence shows a mill pond “''certainly existed by 1633 in England, 1633''” at this location, and a watermill stood on its northern bank. The mill worked on the fall of the tide: a sluice gate allowed river water to fill the pond at high tide, and the outgoing flow through the sluice drove the mill wheel as the tide ebbed. This arrangement—common in Kentish tidal mills—enabled grain milling independent of river navigation. The Board of Ordnance, Ordnance Office acquired the mill and pond in the early 18th century to reclaim land for the expanding Dockyard complex. By the mid-18th century the area was progressively filled in as Chatham’s New Gun Wharf, a naval ordnance depot first laid out in the 1750s. In effect the tide mill and pond were replaced by the new wharf. Only later storehouse buildings (such as the Deputy Storekeeper’s House, c.1811 in the United Kingdom, 1811–1821 in the United Kingdom, 21) survive from the New Gun Wharf phase. Little physical trace remains of the mill itself, but 17th century, 17th–18th century, 18th-century plans and decennial returns document its presence and dimensions on the north bank of the Brook.

Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was established on The Brook in the early 19th century to serve the local Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformist community. Kent’s Historic Environment Record lists a "Weslyan Chapel, The Brook, c.1810–1920 in the United Kingdom, 1920, demolished 1960 in the United Kingdom, 1960." The chapel stood immediately adjacent to what is now known as Dickens House (18 St Mary’s Place). Like many Wesleyan chapels of the period, it was a plain rectangular brick or stone building with a gabled roof and simple arched windows; surviving maps show it amid dense housing of The Brook. The congregation would have formed part of the rapidly expanding Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain), Wesleyan Methodist movement in Kent, established by the late 18th century, offering Evangelicalism, evangelical and Social engagement, social outreach to the town’s Working class, working-class population. The chapel is recorded on Ordnance Survey maps from 1897 to 1923. It apparently fell out of use after World War I; the building later served as a The Salvation Army, Salvation Army hall, and was ultimately demolished in 1960.

Chatham Town Hall

The Renaissance-style Chatham Town Hall (completed 1899–1900) stands on The Brook at the junction with Dock Road. It was built of limestone and opened on the 23rd January 1900 by Lord Rosebery as a municipal building. It later became The Brook Theatre.

Old Brook Pumping Station

Located on Solomon’s Road, the Old Brook Pumping Station was completed in 1929 as part of Chatham’s new sewerage scheme. It housed pumps to raise sewage from the Brook valley into the rising main toward Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve, Motney Hill treatment works. The building (a brick edifice of 1920s industrial design) is now a preserved heritage site – it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and operates as a museum of Victorian and early 20th-century sewage technology.

Chatham Police Station

The former Chatham Police Station (with address The Brook, ME4) sits near the junction with Dock Road. Chatham Police Station was a police station of the Kent County Constabulary (later Kent Police) located on The Brook, Chatham, Kent, England. It served the Chatham area (a major naval dockyard and garrison town) throughout much of the 20th century and into the early 2000s. The station is recorded in contemporary accounts as still operational in 2002 in the United Kingdom, 2002–2011 in the United Kingdom, 2011, but was closed in the mid-2000s after Kent Police consolidated town policing into a single Medway station at Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham. Chatham Police Station lay opposite the Medway Magistrates’ Court. The Kent Police asset register (2024 in the United Kingdom, 2024) still lists “''Chatham Police Station, The Brook, Chatham''” among its properties but no policing functions occur there today.

The former police station was occupied by Kent County Constabulary as the Chatham Division headquarters and later by Kent Police (the successor force after 1974 in the United Kingdom, 1974). Contemporary news reports confirm the station’s use in the early 21st century: for example, in 2002 in the United Kingdom, 2002 a high-speed motorway chase ended with suspects brought back to this Chatham station for Questioning (law enforcement), questioning, and in 2004 in the United Kingdom, 2004 two individuals were reported to have been held and questioned there in a child-death investigation. After a new “Medway Police Station” opened in Gillingham in March 2007 in the United Kingdom, 2007, the Chatham station at The Brook was closed. In the station’s later years it came to be referred to as the former Chatham police station. Internally, the station would have contained the typical facilities of a small-town police house: Prison cell, holding cells (lock-ups) for detained persons, interview/desk offices, an “incident room” or briefing area, and accommodation for sergeants or constables on duty. (Later Kent Police reports mention an “incident room” at Chatham in the 1980s case of Dr. Victoria Anyetei.)

Several high-profile events touched Chatham Police Station over the years. In 1905 in the United Kingdom, 1905 the famous escapologist Harry Houdini staged a public escape at Barnard’s Palace of Varieties in Chatham. Newspaper accounts describe how Houdini was locked up handcuffed in a Chatham jail cell (at a temporary setup for the show) and promptly broke out. Notably, local accounts suggest ''Chatham police refused to participate'' in Houdini’s demonstration, so police from nearby Rochester handled it instead. During World War II, Chatham’s station played a role in frontline defense. In 1941 in the United Kingdom, 1941 a Messerschmitt Me 262, German Messerschmitt crashed on nearby high ground (Luton, Kent, Luton), and the wounded Aircraft pilot, pilot was reportedly taken under guard by the Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard to Chatham Police Station. An angry crowd of local civilians had gathered, but police and guards ensured the pilot’s safe custody. (The pilot later returned in 1955 in the United Kingdom, 1955 to thank his rescuers.)

In September 2003 in the United Kingdom, 2003, Chatham Police Station featured in national news when 46-year-old David Milner was accused of abducting a 14-year-old schoolgirl. Milner was held there after his arrest. Photographs from that case show Milner leaving the station to attend Medway Magistrates’ Court.

Pentagon Shopping Centre

Built in the early 1970s, the Pentagon Shopping Centre occupies a large site on the east side of The Brook. Its construction cleared several old streets (''George Street, Nelson Road, Fair Row, Solomon’s Road, Avondale Terrace'') that had contained housing and shops.

One notable example is W. & J. Mackay & Co. Ltd. (''later called Mackays of Chatham''), who were forced to vacate and have their Fair Row premises demolished to make way for the new complex. Shortly thereafter, the company relocated its book‐printing operations approximately two miles south to a newly built facility in Lordswood, Kent, Lordswood, Chatham, where it still operates today.

The “Pentagon” (so named for its five-sided central court) opened in 1975 in the United Kingdom, 1975 as part of a redevelopment of Chatham town centre. It includes the adjoining Brook multi-storey car park and the (now mostly unused) Mountbatten House office block. A former internal bus station in the Pentagon (accessible via ramps) was replaced in 2011 by the new Chatham Waterfront Bus Station; local buses (e.g. routes 8 and 145/146) now use the waterfront interchange rather than the old Chatham Pentagon bus station, Pentagon station.
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Crown House

Crown House, located at 55–59 The Brook in Chatham, Kent (ME4 4LQ), is a mid-20th-century office block on The Brook. It replaced earlier older buildings (and an open canal) along the west side of The Brook. It is a Department for Work and Pensions–owned facility that currently houses Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil service and DWP staff and operates as a Jobcentre Plus office for the Medway area. The centre provides employment support, processes benefit claims, and conducts mandatory interviews to assess eligibility and support jobseekers. In 2017, the DWP published a report announcing that it would retain the Crown House building—referred to in the report as part of its estate.
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Chatham Ragged School

The Chatham Ragged School on King Street, Chatham, Kent, is a two storey yellow stock brick building with red brick dressings, built in 1858 by John Young to provide free education to poor children under the Victorian ragged‐school movement; it retains its original “''RAGGED SCHOOL''” plaque and was designated Grade II listed on 21 April 2020 in the United Kingdom, 2020.

Tesco Superstore (The Brook, Chatham)

The site at The Brook – formerly occupied by a large Tesco Big-box store, superstore – has a long history as a town-centre retail area.

In the mid‑20th century the corner of The Brook was filled with small shops and businesses. Local recollections note that a grocer’s “''Packer building''” (red‑brick, two‑storey) shop was at the foot of The Brook. Mackay's of Chatham also operated a factory nearby at Fair Row, but had directive advertising near this specific corner of The Brook. The antiques dealer Francis Iles also opened a store in 1961 in the United Kingdom, 1961 at the corner of The Brook, described in one memoir as “''a haven for collectors of China''”, run by a young couple named Audrey and John. These buildings were later demolished for redevelopment. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the entire block was cleared to build the new shopping complex, which was the Tesco site.

In March 1982 in the United Kingdom, 1982 the modern supermarket and its parking facilities opened. This was a Tesco Superstore, specifically built for the purpose, and designated as Store ID 2254 – a 106,000 sq ft (9,850 m²), two‑storey store with its own rooftop car park – developed at a cost of about £8 million. (Medway Council retained the freehold of the land throughout.) The opening of the store reportedly created over 450 jobs. Amenities included a 155‑seat Coffeehouse, café, an in‑store bakery, and departments for home and clothing goods. The large brown‑brick building was constructed partly over the historic course of The Brook stream, which had been built over by the late 19th century. A local history site notes that because The Brook had been buried under the site, “''the foundations weren’t quite up to the job''” when the “''very big Tesco store''” was built, requiring early reinforcement work.

Tesco era and decline (1982–2015)

For over three decades the store anchored Chatham town centre. A connected seven‑storey Pay and display, pay‑and‑display car park (the Market Hall Car Park on Cross Street) opened at the same time (March 1982) to serve the supermarket and surrounding shops. However, from the 2000s in the United Kingdom, 2000s onward the Tesco branch began to decline. Shoppers and local media noted that the store had “''long needed a revamp''” and had been allowed to become “''dark and dingy''” in appearance. Sections of the sales floor were progressively closed off and used for stock storage. In 2012 Tesco even spent £35,000 on added security (fences and lighting) for the store and multi‑storey car park, suggesting the site had become neglected. By 2015 in the United Kingdom, 2015 the branch was widely seen as under performing, and it was listed as one of Tesco’s loss‑making stores nationwide.

In mid‑January 2015 Tesco announced that the Chatham store would close, with the last trading day set for Easter Saturday, 4 April 2015. The store manager commented that staff were “''proud''” to have served Chatham but “''sad to be leaving''”. Councillor, Councillors noted that profits had fallen and expressed doubt another supermarket chain would take over.

At the time, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative-run Medway Council, which owned the site, denied rumours that the building was slated for redevelopment into housing. Local customers interviewed outside the store said they were unsurprised by the closure, lamenting that Tesco had "let the branch decline" after years of neglect.

Post‑closure and interim uses (2015–2020)

After Tesco shut in 2015, the site remained largely vacant. The Freehold (law), freehold stayed with Medway Council.

In 2016 in the United Kingdom, 2016, part of the former superstore unit was let to the outdoors retailer Go Outdoors (a camping and leisure chain), while the other part (originally earmarked for a JD Sports, JD Gyms facility) remained empty. A Go Outdoors branch at The Brook in Chatham opened on 26 March 2016, with actor Ross Kemp cutting the ribbon at a grand opening ceremony. It closed in August 2020 in the United Kingdom, 2020.

(One report states its closure was linked to failed lease negotiations with the landlord.) With no new tenant, the big retail building stood empty from 2020 onward. The adjacent “Market Hall” building – a large, brown‑brick hall built alongside the Tesco store – was occupied by a HomePlus furniture store during this period, but this too closed by 2024 in the United Kingdom, 2024 and was demolished shortly after in 2025 in the United Kingdom, 2025.

Community groups and local planners began discussing the site’s future. The Arches Chatham Neighbourhood Forum held consultations in 2021 in the United Kingdom, 2021, noting that the “''freehold of the site''” remained owned by Medway Council. A local news site described the town‑centre block as a “''purpose-built Tesco superstore that shut in April 2015''”. In June 2022 in the United Kingdom, 2022 the property was listed for sale, with agents highlighting its “''significant redevelopment potential''”. At that time Medway Council still retained the freehold of the entire complex, including the multi‑storey car park. Over 2015–2020, the adjoining car park’s usage had collapsed; council figures show that income from the Market Hall car park fell from £97,475 in 2010 to only about £1,042 in 2021, and the car park was closed in 2022 “''until the future of the disused superstore… is determined''”.

Redevelopment proposals (2023–2025)

In October 2022, Medway Council sold the site to developer Arpenteur Nightingale. Arpenteur described the property as a development opportunity comprising three areas: a northern multi-storey car park, a central/southern large retail unit with rooftop parking (the former Tesco/Go Outdoors store), and a northwestern former market hall building. The company held public consultations in early 2024, proposing a residential-led scheme. Initial plans envisaged roughly 335–355 new apartments of one to three bedrooms in buildings of 6-12 storeys, with ground-floor commercial space and a new public plaza. As part of these plans, Arpenteur proposed re-opening the closed multi-storey car park for use by residents and the public. In December 2024, RLT Engineering Consultants Ltd was appointed by Arpenteur Nightingale to conduct a flood risk assessment and develop a drainage strategy for the former Market Hall building in support of a detailed planning application for a mixed-use development on the former Tesco site.

By December 2024 a full Planning permission, planning application (ref. MC/24/2495) for 319 flats on the 1.11 ha site had been submitted (under Arpenteur Nightingale’s name). Demolition of the old Tesco/Go Outdoors building and the adjacent Market Hall began in February–March 2025 to clear the way. Media reports and the BBC noted that the new development (if approved) would include 133 one‑bed, 175 two‑bed, five three‑bed, and six studio flats across five blocks of five to seven storeys. Medway Council’s planning committee was due to consider the application in June 2025. Planning officers recommended approval, but local residents and the Arches Forum raised objections about the scheme’s height, massing, and lack of on-site parking. (The plans rely on the reopened car park for resident parking.)
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Embankment-side businesses: Along the south side of The Brook (by the town’s western embankment and old defensive wall), there were various small workshops, garages and yards in the mid-20th century. For example, in the 1950s–60s there were local garages and motor-trade businesses (motorcycle dealers such as Brook Motorcycles and Norman Motorcycles, an Auto Sport Centre garage, military outfitters like Bernard’s Naval & Military Outfitters, and the Vokes taxi company) on or near The Brook, as well as older premises (shoe repairers, a foundry trade yard, and a Wrecking yard, scrap yard at Finnis Yard). These have mostly closed or moved; the street now has more modern commercial units.

Historic Pubs and Shops on The Brook

In the 18th–20th centuries the length of The Brook was lined with many taverns and businesses. Notable examples included the White Swan (at the south end near Cage Lane) and its adjoining ''White Swan Tap'' (with a bowling green behind), the Royal Sovereign (on The Brook itself, closed in 1977 during the Pentagon redevelopment, and the Duke of Cambridge (on Fair Row at the Brook’s north end). Other past public houses on The Brook included the Three Cups (corner of Queen Street), the Kings Head, the Bell, Sir Colin Campbell, Armoury/Brighton Tavern, also called Army & Navy, the Churchill, later called Brook Bark, and the Lord Nelson. These catered to dockworkers, soldiers and townspeople. Many closed by the late 20th century, though some names survive locally (e.g. The Brook Bar name on Churchills). Other Brook-area businesses over time included motor-cycle shops (Brook Motorcycles, Norman Motorcycles), an Auto Sport Centre garage, and outfitters like Bernard’s Naval & Military Outfitters. In addition, Queensway Furniture occupied a corner site (having replaced older shops) and Johnnie’s Café was a longstanding snack bar on The Brook.

Pubs and Taverns along The Brook

Army & Navy

7 The Brook (ME4 4LA), locally and commercially known as Army & Navy, also known as the Army and Navy Hotel, is a historic former licensed Pub, public house on Whiffens Avenue at its junction with The Brook in Chatham, Kent. It is located next to the Brook Theatre. The building has operated under various names. In the mid-19th century it was recorded as the Army and Navy Hotel (the Army & Navy Hotel is documented as a meeting place in 1852 in the United Kingdom, 1852). During the 20th century it was later known as the Brook Bar, and then rebranded as Churchills in its final years. The pub remained in operation until 2016 in the United Kingdom, 2016. One contemporary account notes that the pub was one of "Medway's livelier, more interesting and historic venues" also noting they were hosting "Sunday bands with karaoke and nightclub in the cellar."

A significant incident occurred on 22 September 2016 when a large brawl broke out outside the pub. One man was Stabbing, stabbed and another critically injured. Police immediately requested a premises licence review. The Medway Licensing Panel held an expedited hearing and on 17 October 2016 revoked the licence for Churchills, citing poor management… history of incidents… and the severity of the incident. This effectively closed the pub. By May 2018 in the United Kingdom, 2018, reports indicated that the bar fittings were being stripped out as the building was set to be converted into residential flats, following the approval of a change of use planning application submitted the previous year.

Licensees

Historic records of individual licensees for 7 The Brook are sparse. Newspaper and registry sources indicate at least one specific licensee by name: in 1930 in the United Kingdom, 1930, Percy Ansell was serving as the licensee of the Army & Navy pub at this location. (Percy Ansell was also a Chatham town councillor and later mayor in 1935.) Earlier and later licensee names are not fully documented in available online sources. In its final years the premises operated as the Brook Bar and then Churchills under licence by various operators until 2016.

Shops and Other Businesses on The Brook

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, The Brook in Chatham was lined with Independent business, small, family-run shops serving the local community. At number 15, Kate Hiscox operated a retail shop for at least two years (1890–91), though little else is known about her business or its exact offerings. Nearby at number 22, Daniel Gibbs was listed as a shopkeeper in the same years, but like Hiscox, he disappears from records by the early 1890s, suggesting his store closed or changed hands soon afterward.

Further along the street at number 40, Emily Annie Drago (often listed as “Annie Drago”) ran a shop in 1890–91. Census records indicate she was part of a local family but, after marrying in 1898, she no longer appears as a merchant on The Brook; by 1910, her premises had likely been taken over by someone else. Just up the way at number 55, Henry Higgins kept a small shop during the same period, yet no trade notices or later directory entries survive, implying his business too was short-lived.

Number 110 housed a more specialized marine stores dealer, John Giles, who supplied equipment and supplies to ships—apt for a street close to Chatham Dockyard. His listing ends around 1900, indicating that the marine trade on The Brook did not persist into mid-century. At the corner of Union Street, number 125 was home to Joshua Driver & Son, who sold Maize, corn, Seed, seeds, hay, and straw. Joshua Driver died in 1898, and although his son William later became a local mayor, the Driver family’s shop no longer appears in directories by the 1910s and was eventually absorbed into newer buildings.

By 1910, a brief entry at number 127 names Amos Alfred William as a shopkeeper—likely operating both a store and taking in lodgers—but no records exist before or after that listing. Finally, Robert D. Hobbs ran a shop at number 145 in 1890–91; after this, he is never mentioned again, and his premises were later redeveloped along with the rest of The Brook. By the mid-20th century, most of these Victorian-era buildings had been replaced or extensively altered, and during the 1970s redevelopment of Chatham’s High Street and The Brook (which included construction of the Pentagon shopping centre), very little of the original row-fronted shops remained.

Major Events

* June 1907 Flood: On 1 June 1907 in the United Kingdom, 1907 heavy rain caused the Brook and nearby streets to flood. Contemporary postcards show cars stranded in deep water on The Brook. The flood was a reminder of the old open brook’s tendency to overflow (the site’s natural drainage is limited).
* World War II Bombing: Chatham’s dockyard and town centre were heavily bombed in WWII. Bomb damage left several vacant sites around The Brook (some land was cleared instead of rebuilt after the war). Nearby Ordnance Street was devastated in 1940, and the rubble eventually reshaped surrounding streets. During the war the proximity of the Chatham naval base meant military patrols often passed along The Brook and Dock Road area, keeping watch for damage or unexploded bombs.

Batchelor Street

Batchelor Street (formerly Fullalove or Full O’ Love Alley) is a short Pedestrian zone, pedestrian street located off The Brook. Its history is documented in town maps, directories and Archive, archives. In the 19th century it formed a narrow cobbled lane off the High Street, lined with weather boarded cottages (e.g. an 1898 photo, captioned "High Street Chatham (East). The sign on the left is to Fullalove Alley, now Batchelor Street". Trade directories confirm the early name: for example, the ''Kelly's Directory, Kelly’s Directory'' of 1882 lists Robert Godsiff, Marine Store Dealer, Fullalove Alley. This original name survives in archival captions. County directories and maps show that Fullalove Alley was renamed Batchelor Street around 1900–1902: a local history study notes "the area was redeveloped between 1900 and 1902 with Fullalove Alley becoming the current Batchelor Street". The first directory entries for Batchelor Street appear from about 1903 onward. The renaming was part of a wider re-numbering of Chatham High Street during redevelopment of that era.

Kent County Council Weights and Measures Office

One prominent former building was the Kent County Council Weights & Measures Office at the corner of Batchelor Street and The Brook. This ornate stone-built office (two storeys plus attic, in Victorian architecture, Victorian civic style) was erected in the early 1900s as part of the High Street improvements; it was demolished in 2018 in the United Kingdom, 2018 during redevelopment of the site. In its place a new six-storey mixed-use building is now rising on the Batchelor Street corner.

History

This building is the former Kent County Council Weights and Measures Office, located on the east side of Batchelor Street in Chatham, Kent. Its red‑brick façade, Victorian sash windows, and the “''Kent County Council Weights and Measures Office''” stone plaque identify it as the (now former) local administrative base for Trade Standards in the Chatham District (Inspector A C Fox) under Kent County Council during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Weights and Measures Acts (UK), Weights and Measures were a government body that ensured all measuring devices—like scales, beer glasses, and optics—were accurate and legal. Unchecked or inaccurate equipment couldn’t be used and using them was illegal.

=Origins

=

Batchelor Street was developed in the latter half of the 19th century as part of Chatham’s urban expansion beyond the Royal Dockyard precincts. Around this time, local authorities across England established dedicated Weights and Measures Offices to enforce the Weights and Measures Acts, ensuring fair trade and accurate commerce. In Chatham District, the office on Batchelor Street served as the headquarters for the District Inspector (A C Fox by 1936), who was responsible for verifying that all merchants’ and market traders’ scales, weights, and measuring devices conformed to statutory standards. These offices typically included a calibration room, secure storage for standard weights and measures, and office space for clerks and inspectors.

20th century operations

Throughout the early 20th century, the Chatham Weights and Measures Office remained in continuous use, adapting to successive Weights and Measures Act, Weights and Measures Acts (e.g., 1878, 1893, and 1963). Inspectors used the premises to test bulk liquid measures (such as petrol pumps), weighbridges, and retail scales, supporting both consumer protection and revenue collection. As trade regulations evolved—especially post‑World War II—many district offices consolidated, and this Batchelor Street office was eventually decommissioned as a standalone calibration site. By the 1970s, routine calibration work had largely shifted to a central “Kent Scientific Services” laboratory (located elsewhere in Maidstone), and the Batchelor Street premises were vacated. The former building was demolished around 2018 and the site became designated as brownfield land in 2020 in the United Kingdom, 2020.
----Batchelor Street has long contained mixed residential and commercial uses. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the street housed small shops and workshops serving the local neighbourhood and dockyard. One example is “Robert Godsiff, Marine Store Dealer” of Fullalove Alley in 1882 (suggesting a maritime-supply shop for dockyard workers). Through the 20th century many buildings on Batchelor Street were used as tradesmen’s workshops, warehouses or small retail units. City directories from the 1950s–80s list various builders, plumbers, and light industrial businesses at Batchelor Street addresses. By the 2000s the east end of Batchelor Street had become largely back-of-block service areas: a mid-2010s planning report noted the former buildings on the Solomons Road side (rear of 247–253 High Street and 1–5 Batchelor Street) had been demolished and were in use as a car park. (That same report confirmed the site once held a commercial building, now replaced by flats and a new access road.) In recent years, 1 Batchelor Street (on the corner) has been occupied by a Halfords bicycle/motor accessories warehouse-style shop; this replaced the earlier "Brook Garage" complex on the site.

Social History

Batchelor Street’s earliest residents were largely working-class families tied to the nearby naval dockyard and army barracks. Many inhabitants in the 19th century were labourers, craftsmen or tradesmen. For example, 1881 census references to Batchelor Street and nearby include dockyard workers and pensioners. The presence of a “marine store dealer” on the street in 1882 indicates close links to maritime trades. The small, weatherboarded houses visible in period photos match typical workers’ cottages of Brompton and the Dockyard lines. Although detailed census listings require archive research, local history suggests the street formed part of the “sea captain’s ward” housing (St. Mary’s or Brompton wards) where many dockyard employees lived. No notable gentry lived here; rather, Batchelor Street exemplified 19th-century dockyard-town streets of modest artisan homes.

Urban Planning and Redevelopment

From the 1960s onward Batchelor Street has been affected by Chatham town-centre schemes. In the late 1960s–70s, the construction of the Pentagon Shopping Centre and its adjacent roads (now “Solomon’s Road” and the re-routed Brook road) reconfigured the area. Solomon’s Road (an east–west service road linking the north side of High Street to the Pentagon Centre) was laid out at that time; Batchelor Street’s northern end was tied into this new road (as shown by Medway planning maps noting the site abuts Solomon’s Road to the north. In the early 2000s The Brook (the old stream route) was further widened as a major one-way road bordering the Great Lines Heritage Park. More recently, a design and access statement designated Batchelor Street’s western block as ''“Opportunity Site G”'' for high-density redevelopments. In practice this has prompted demolition and rebuilding: for example, a 2017 Planning permission, planning application and subsequent construction by Cook Associates replaced the old rear buildings with a new 6-storey residential block on the Batchelor/The Brook corners. Another scheme granted permission in 2017 built a new mixed-use building (ground-floor shops with flats above) on the Solomon’s Road car park behind Batchelor Street. Thus, from the 1970s to today Batchelor Street has transitioned from backstreets of industrial workshops and cottages to a modern infill streetscape guided by the town centre regeneration.

Traffic Regulation

Batchelor Street has been Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised at its south end and subject to recent traffic controls. In July 2024 Medway Council confirmed that the High Street entrance from Batchelor Street is part of a “Pedestrian zone, Pedestrian Zone”. Access from Batchelor Street onto the High Street is officially restricted, as one of Medway’s "Safer, Healthier Streets" moving-traffic schemes. This means the street is effectively Car-free movement, car-free at its High Street end, improving safety for residents. (Delivery and disabled access is managed via Solomon’s Road behind the street.) The ban was approved in the Council’s Safer, Healthier Streets Tranche 2 report of mid-2024.

Cultural and Political Events

In the spring of 1932, Oswald Mosley, Sir Oswald Mosley’s short-lived New Party (UK), New Party held an open‐air political meeting on Batchelor Street. This rally – organized by the Medway Towns branch of the New Party – occurred amid high local unemployment and Political violence, political turmoil. Unemployment in Chatham had roughly doubled since 1929 (7,687 registered unemployed by November 1932), fueling Civil disorder, social unrest. Mosley, who had resigned from the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party in early 1931 to launch the New Party, was moving toward Fascism and ideology, fascist ideology. (He had recently visited Benito Mussolini, Mussolini in Italy and by April 1932 formally disbanded the New Party in name, keeping only its youth movement.) Local historians note that the May rally “illustrates” the New Party’s overt turn to fascism in the Medway area. The meeting is often cited as a key moment in Chatham’s interwar political history.
The Batchelor Street rally took place in May 1932 as an open‑air New Party meeting. Contemporary accounts (recorded later by historians) describe a heavily symbolic event. Benito Mussolini, Mussolini’s Italian ''Fascist Hymn'' (likely ''Giovinezza'') was played over loudspeakers, and members of the New Party’s youth movement (NUPA) gave the Roman salute, fascist salute to the audience. According to Turner, "the New Party held an open air meeting in Batchelor Street… at which the Fascist Hymn was played… and members of NUPA gave the Fascist salute." The rally clearly marked the party’s shift from its earlier rhetoric.

In the months after the rally, the New Party fully embraced fascism. Mosley formally dissolved the New Party in April 1932, retaining only its National Union of Progressive Associations (NUPA) wing; the local meeting on Batchelor Street was later cited as evidence that NUPA had "rapidly become overtly Fascist." On 1 October 1932 Mosley launched the British Union of Fascists (BUF) to supersede the New Party. Locally, some ex‑supporters withdrew. In August 1932, Martin Woodroffe explicitly condemned the party’s Italian fascism, Italo-German Fascism, including the Nazi salute and uniforms, in a letter to the Medway News, Chatham News. Historian Turner concludes that the rally and Woodroffe’s break were part of the New Party’s rapid decline after its electoral failure.

Batchelor Street Today

Batchelor Street is today a short, pedestrian-only link from Chatham’s High Street/Pentagon shopping area toward Solomon’s Road. It remains narrow and signed “no motor vehicles,” and in July 2024 Medway Council formally included the High Street end in the town’s pedestrian zone. The street is lined on both sides with mixed retail and residential use. Key features include:

* Layout & access: Batchelor Street runs south from the High Street into the Pentagon area. The entire south end has been pedestrianised and vehicles are banned at the High Street entrance. A Barclays, Barclays bank branch at 263–265 High Street sits at the corner, meaning the street runs immediately behind that block. (Local directions to the nearby assessment centre instruct visitors to “look for Barclays Bank and turn into Batchelor Street”.)
* West side (Nos. 1–5): Modern shopfronts and flats occupy the west side. For example, No.1 is a Halfords auto/cycle store. Other ground-floor units house local services such as solicitors (Olives Solicitors at No.2 and various takeaways or convenience shops (pizza/takeaway outlets, vape shops, etc.).
* East side (older buildings): The east side consists of a late-Victorian terrace of buildings. The historic Jolly Caulkers pub (No.1-3) anchors this row. These 19th-century buildings have survived modern redevelopment, giving the street a heritage character.
* Redevelopment: At the north end a new six-storey mixed-use block is under construction on the corner with The Brook Behind this, Solomon’s Road now has a small public car park and a new block of flats lining it. In general Batchelor Street today is a mix of old and new buildings, as envisaged by Chatham’s town-centre masterplan.
* Public facilities: The building at 1A Batchelor Street houses a Department for Work and Pensions “Chatham Assessment Centre” (for benefits/health assessments). This property was reportedly sold by the The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust, Royal Naval Benevolent Trust in 2018–19, suggesting the centre occupies a former trust-owned building.

Jolly Caulkers pub

The Jolly Caulkers pub at No.1-3 Batchelor Street still occupies its original late-Victorian building. The Jolly Caulkers is a longstanding public house on Batchelor Street. It has operated here since at least the late 19th century. Census and directory records show a James Brockwell listed as a beer retailer at “1 Fullalove Alley” (the former name of Batchelor Street) in 1881–82. Members of the Brockwell family continued as licensees into the early 20th century (e.g. James Brockwell appears again in 1891 and 1901). By 1911 the pub was run by Stephen Stuppell (listed as “Beer House Keeper”), and by 1938 a Mrs. Jane A. Offen is recorded as the licensee. These records indicate the pub’s name and use have remained continuous for well over a century.

As of 2025 the Jolly Caulkers remains an active local pub. It is operated by Woolwich Taverns Ltd (a Tennent’s UK pub company) and retains a traditional single-bar interior. A CAMRA guide describes it as a “traditional High Street pub” with sports TVs and nautical décor (the walls are hung with naval photographs). The building’s Victorian façade is largely intact. Recent local news stories confirm the pub is still busy with patrons – for example, a May 2024 KentOnline report describes an assault that occurred at the Jolly Caulkers, indicating it remains a well-known community venue. In summary, the Jolly Caulkers has preserved its historic name and character as a Chatham tavern from the 19th century to the present day.

Modern Heritage and Changes

Several historic Brook-area buildings have heritage status or have been demolished. The Old Brook Pumping Station is a scheduled ancient monument and open as a museum. No. 18 The Brook—Dickens’s childhood home—along with the Salvation Army Citadel, were among several buildings demolished to make way for the Pentagon Shopping Centre.

Chatham Town Hall (The Brook Theatre) is a Grade II listed building dating 1899 in the United Kingdom, 1899. In recent years the Churchills pub at ''7 The Brook'' closed and was stripped out. An example is the new Brook Theatre (repurposed from its previous use as the town hall). A 2010s plan to redevelop the Queen Street/Slicketts Hill car parks (south of The Brook) also highlighted the long-derelict nature of some Brook-area land.

Brian Joyce’s ''The Chatham Scandal'' (1999 in the United Kingdom, 1999) notes that in the late 19th century the area around The Brook had a notorious red-light district, and that pressures for “moral reform” influenced some of the Slum clearance in the United Kingdom, slum clearance and rebuilding. (Such accounts underline the Brook’s historical reputation as a poor, disreputable quarter – the very sort of place Dickens himself evoked when referring to Chatham in ''Pickwick''.)

Throughout its history, The Brook has transformed from a polluted ditch in a slum to a modern urban street. Today it still recalls its past in place-names: Sly Kates Lane, known today as Slicketts Hill, Cage Lane, known today as Upbury Way, and in surviving buildings, even as much of the old geography lies buried underground.

See also

* Chatham, Kent
* A231 road
* Pentagon Shopping Centre
* Old Brook Pumping Station
* Chatham Ragged School

References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, The Brook, Chatham, The Brook

19th century in the United Kingdom, 19th century
Transport in Medway
Roads in Kent
Chatham, Kent