The dockyard town. Victorian terraces that wind round the hillsides between the High Street and Luton, post-war Walderslade, 1970s Lordswood, and new homes on St Mary's Island and at Chatham Waters: hillside, plateau and reclaimed marsh in one town.
Chatham
The Royal Dockyard ran here from the 1560s until it closed in 1984, and the town grew up the valley sides around it. The Victorian terraces between the High Street and Luton unusually follow the contour lines, so gardens rise or fall steeply and extensions often need retaining walls and stepped footings. In Luton more than half the homes date from before 1919; Walderslade is mostly 1945 to 1964, and two-thirds of Lordswood was built between 1965 and 1982.
Most of Chatham is chalk, with clay-with-flints on the plateau around Weeds Wood and Lordswood and soft alluvium by the river at Chatham Maritime. St Mary's Island is reclaimed marsh, raised with spoil dug out of the dock basins. Walderslade is a dry chalk valley, where Medway's flood risk assessment notes groundwater can come up at the valley floor, and the British Geological Survey rates old chalk workings as a significant risk around Luton, Walderslade and Lordswood.
That variety is why a Chatham extension cannot be priced from a postcode alone. A builder needs to see the slope, the ground and the access first.
Permissions
Medway Council
Medway Council decides planning applications, and building control is STG Building Control, whose office is in Rochester. The Historic Dockyard, New Road, Maidstone Road, Star Hill to Sun Pier and Brompton Lines are conservation areas, and Article 4 directions on parts of Maidstone Road and New Road, and on Brompton streets including Mill Road, Saunders Street, St Georges Road, Trinity Road, Marlborough Road and Hammond Hill, mean front windows, doors, roofs and walls need permission. HMO conversions need planning permission in Chatham Central & Brompton, Luton and Fort Pitt wards. Medway Street, Sun Pier, the Dockyard and Chatham Maritime are in Flood Zone 3; the High Street, The Brook and Luton Road are not. On the High Street, skips have to arrive before 10am and leave after 5pm.
Services in Chatham
Rear extensions on sloping terrace plots in Luton and around the town centre, with the levels worked out first.
→Retaining walls, stepped footings and drainage for Chatham's hillside gardens.
→Loft conversions on the Walderslade and Lordswood houses, which have the roof space for them.
→Re-roofs on the post-war and 1970s estates as their original coverings reach the end of their life.
→Garden and retaining walls, and brick matching on the Victorian terraces.
→Period windows and doors made to match in the Article 4 streets of Brompton and New Road.
→Common projects
Chatham sits in the middle of Medway. Tell us roughly what you need and we'll pass it to builders working in Chatham.
Questions
Get quotes
A rough idea and a postcode is enough. We'll pass it to local builders who cover Chatham, and they'll contact you directly.