A cathedral founded in 604, a Norman castle keep, and one of the densest runs of listed buildings in Kent. Behind the High Street are the interwar streets of Rochester East, Borstal's terraces and the new homes at Rochester Riverside.
Rochester
Within half a mile of the centre there are 241 listed buildings, 19 of them Grade I, from the cathedral and castle to Eastgate House and Restoration House. Building near them is about detail: the right brick, the right mortar, and permission before anything changes.
Away from the High Street, Rochester is mostly 20th century. Rochester East is about 40 per cent interwar, Borstal grew as a village of terraced houses during the cement boom of the 1860s to 90s before becoming a suburb in the 1930s, and Rochester Riverside is adding around 1,400 new homes between Rochester Bridge and Doust Way.
The city stands on chalk, with clay-with-flints on the higher ground to the south around Warren Wood and alluvium along the river at Rochester Riverside. Near the river, check the ground and the flood map for your address before anything is priced.
Permissions
Medway Council
Medway Council decides planning applications, and STG Building Control, based on Rochester High Street, handles building control. Historic Rochester, Star Hill, Star Hill to Sun Pier, New Road and Watts Avenue & Roebuck Road are conservation areas. Article 4 directions cover every house in Orange Terrace, Gundolph Road, New Road, St Bartholomew's Terrace, Watts Avenue, Roebuck Road and King Edward Road, and parts of the High Street, St Margaret's Street and Maidstone Road, so front windows, doors, roofs and walls there need permission. Listed buildings always need listed building consent. The Esplanade and the Rochester Bridge approach are in Flood Zone 3; the High Street is not.
Services in Rochester
Sash windows, panelled doors and staircases made to match in the conservation areas and listed buildings.
→Repairs and extensions in matched brick and lime mortar, laid in the original bond.
→Rear extensions on the interwar houses of Rochester East and the terraces of Borstal.
→Rear dormers and rooflight lofts that keep the street side unchanged in the Article 4 roads.
→Clay tile and slate re-roofs, like for like where the conservation rules require it.
→Footings and drainage on chalk and by the river, inspected by STG before cover.
→Common projects
STG Building Control is on Rochester High Street, and so is half of the city's history. Tell us about the job and we'll send it to builders who cover Rochester.
Questions
Get quotes
A rough idea and a postcode is enough. We'll pass it to local builders who cover Rochester, and they'll contact you directly.