Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're driving from London, once you're on the M25 heading east, you simply
follow the M20, then turn left at junction 4 onto the A228 for Rochester, junction 6
onto the A229 for Chatham.
VISITOR INFORMATION
The Medway
Visitor Information Centre
is at 95
High St., Rochester (
&
01634/843666;
www.medway.gov.uk). Open hours vary but
are mostly Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 10am to 1pm.
Exploring the Area
ROCHESTER
Charles Dickens, having found literary fame, bought Gad's Hill Place
in Higham, just outside Rochester, in 1856 and lived there until his death in 1870. The
author was regularly seen wandering around this and other towns (such as Gravesend).
The house (where Hans Christian Anderson came to visit and stayed 5 weeks) is now
Gad's Hill School and not open to the public. The Rochester area was the inspiration
for many of Dickens's greatest works. Restoration House in Rochester was the fictional
Satis House, Miss Havisham's home in
Great Expectations.
In
The Pickwick Papers
Mr.
Pickwick stays in the Bull Hotel (now the Royal Victoria and Bull), and walks on the
now-gone Rochester Bridge. Rochester, renamed Cloisterham, is also the setting for his
unfinished novel,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
The town loves its famous son:
The
Dickens Festival
(www.rochesterdickensfestival.org.uk) in early June has been run-
ning for more than 30 years and is a boisterous mix of music, dance, drama, and street
theatre celebrating Victorian times. There's also a
Dickensian Christmas
with a
parade in early December, and a Christmas market at Rochester Castle. Rochester's
Sweeps Festival celebrates the traditional May Day annual holiday of chimney sweeps
with a parade, top folk musicians, and Morris dancers.
Rochester has England's second oldest
cathedral,
founded in a.d. 604, although
the present building is from 1080. Admire one of the country's finest Romanesque
facades, the nave's Norman architecture, some fine Gothic styling, and an inspiring
14th-century Chapter Library door. The cathedral is open daily from 7:30am to 6pm
(Sat to 5pm). Admission is free; audio guides £3. Rochester Castle is one of the best
preserved and finest examples of Norman architecture in England. The grounds are
good for a picnic stop.
Restoration House,
17 Crow Lane (
&
01634/848520;
www.restorationhouse.
co.uk), is an exquisite Elizabethan city-mansion and inspiration for part of Dickens's
novel
Great Expectations.
In 1668 it was used as a stopover for soon-to-be King Charles
II as he returned from exile following Oliver Cromwell's death. Much original decor has
been exposed in continuing renovation. It has a large walled garden, part formal, part
productive. The house is open only Thursdays and Fridays, June to September (£6.50
for adults, £5.50 for seniors, and £3 for children 6-16; garden only £3).
CHATHAM
Charles Dickens, born in Portsmouth, came to Chatham as a child in
1817, when his father took a job at the dockyard. The family lived here until 1822 when
they moved to London but Dickens never lost his affection for the area. In 1856 he
bought Gad's Hill Place, near Rochester (see above). Given his imagination, it's likely he
would have appreciated
Dickens World
on Leviathan Way (
&
01634/890421;
www.
dickensworld.co.uk). It's an indoor theme park where you can take a Great Expectations
boat ride, visit Scrooge's haunted house, see a 4-D cinema show at Peggotty's Boathouse
or an animatronic version of Dickens's life, and come face to face with the author's liter-
ary creations in a Victorian setting. It's open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4:30pm, week-
ends and holidays until 5:30pm (£13 adults, £11 seniors, and £8 children 5-15).
6
