Why Chatham Dockyard is a surprisingly good day out
4 museums, 3 ships, 2 playgrounds and 1 ‘fish and ship’ shop. It’s got everything!
One of those places I can’t believe I only discovered when I was nearly 40.
I loved this place so much that, having brought my youngest daughter last summer, I then returned with my eldest just before the second lockdown.
Chatham Dockyard is the most perfectly preserved historic military dockyard on earth.
Everything is still here: the working ropery (when built, the longest brick building on earth), the wooden slip sheds where ships like Nelson’s HMS Victory were built, the old Commissioner’s House with its lavish garden (he did himself alright!), the dockyard railway and all the other houses, buildings and structures needed to make the ships that (rightly or wrongly) made the British Empire.
The dockyard was in active service right up to the Falklands War and it is one of those places where the past feels very real.
It’s a massive site, with four museums, three ships to explore and a lot of open space next to the River Medway.
Get there as early as possible and plan to be there all day.
Get there by train to Chatham station from a whole bunch of different terminals (St Pancras in just 30 minutes, Victoria in 45, the Thameslink stations in over an hour) and then it’s either a 30 minute walk from the station or a 10 minute bike ride.
You can take your bike on any of these trains and the cycle from Chatham station is entirely signposted and segregated, largely along National Cycle Route 1.
Highly recommended!
