Distant Day Out - Rochester (Part 2)

It would be easy to ignore most of Rochester and focus on the sights everyone's aware of - those being, the castle and cathedral. But there is still lots of interesting history to find in the town centre, which I'll be discussing in this blogpost. Part 1 is here.

The High Street

It feels a bit too convenient to start with the high street in particular - most of the places I'll mention can be found here. But it's still rather wonderful to walk down and take everything in. There's the Guildhall Museum right at the start of the street, which I didn't visit because by the time I got around to the building, it was time to head home. Yet I'm sure the inside of the former Guildhall, built in 1687 and chronicling the local history of the area, would be fascinating to look around then later discuss on this blog. 

   

The Huguenot Museum

Commonly called England's first refugees, the Huguenots were French Protestants who fled France in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the wake of religious oppression and violence against them. Several Huguenots settled in England, with many moving to places in Kent, like Rochester, where they brought knowledge in trades and crafts such as in weaving, also establishing the English silk industry along the way.

   

Admission to the museum is about £5.50, with the upside that the ticket lasts a year, which is cool. The museum itself is constrained mainly to one floor, where it's easy to walk around for a while and look at the various artifacts of Huguenot life. You'll find paintings of prominent Huguenot ministers and various items produced by the people who fled, such as this clock. There's also a large dollhouse which forms one of the exhibitions, which is pretty to look at; it was owned by Sarah Lethieullier, whose father was the then director of the Bank of England.

 

But on the ground floor, if you decide to look around for a bit longer, you might stumble across this painting. It's the well-recognised His Master's Voice, painted by Francis Barraud, a descendent of the Huguenots, in 1898, and which has since been co-opted as the mascot of HMV. The painting was acquired by the museum only last year, so I'm assuming it's a permanent exhibition. 

His Master's Voice

Eastgate House

Not far down the high street lies Eastgate House. Built in 1590, it was initially the family home of Sir Peter Buck, who was a senior officer in the Royal Dockyard in not too distant Chatham, but the house later lived many lives as a boarding school, hostel, and is now a museum. It also only cost £3.50 to visit, although that's because I'm a student - I'm glad I get to visit museums for less, that's one cool thing about being at uni.

Eastgate House

This was another museum which doesn't take too long to look around, though maybe I was too quick - the museum staff were stunned to see me return after not too long. But I did see all the rooms, it's simply not that large a house; just three floors, with a few rooms on each floor. It was interesting to see what would have been the kitchen, reading about the role of the English housewife in Victorian England, as well as the halls with their ornate furniture and decorated furnaces. There's the odd reference to Miss Havisham, the mansion owner from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, what with the cobwebbed wedding dress and wedding cake. 

   

Otherwise, there are the gardens to look forward to after you exhaust the museum. There, you'll find the Swiss Chalet, where Dickens used to write some of his novels. I've not mentioned it yet, but Rochester is where Dickens spent large swathes of his life, and where he also wished to be buried (he wasn't). Unfortunately, the chalet is closed to visitors whilst they make urgent repairs, but it's still cool to see in person. Even then, you still have the rest of the gardens to look around for a while. And okay, I didn't spend much time doing that either, but in my defence I still wanted to visit Chatham that day. Even the museum staff encouraged it, you'll see what I mean when I get round to writing that blogpost. 

Dickens's Swiss Chalet

Restoration House 

Further away from the high street, but still firmly in the town centre, lies Restoration House. Purposefully built outside the city walls, it's composed of two buildings which were merged together in 1587 to form a large mansion. The first resident was local MP Francis Clerke, but no one remembers him - the house's legacy stems from two notable facts, both honoured on a plaque. It's said that King Charles II, on the night of the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, stayed here for the night. It was also an inspiration to Dickens for Satis House in Great Expectations, which was Miss Havisham's mansion. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have anything else to add, because the house was closed when I visited. It's only open in the summer on Thursdays and Fridays, and even then photography is restricted within the house to certain times. It's a shame, it looks fantastic on the outside, but sadly I can't add much else.

 

Instead, I walked across the Vines, which is a park located directly opposite the house, to head over to the castle. An information board, unsurprisingly very proud of Dickens's Rochester heritage, could be found there. Apparently Dickens even spent lots of time walking around here, which is very cool. In fact, before I visited Rochester, I had no clue of Dickens's link to the area - I had always assumed he was from London because all my English teachers, whenever we studied A Christmas Carol, focused on Victorian London. I suppose that makes sense - that's where you get the workhouses and focus on labour conditions in his writing - but still, I find it a bit odd I never knew about his relation to Rochester until now.

Epilogue 

A final aside, and proof I really need to research before I visit places, Rochester is home to the second oldest school still running - the King's School, a private boarding school, has been open since 604 AD, and was opened alongside the cathedral. I feel kinda stupid for not looking that up at any point, because, well, it would have been cool to mention with a photo.  

Otherwise, that's it for Rochester, I'm pretty sure. The city itself is wonderful to walk around and admire, and I'm glad to have visited when I did. I might one day come back, who knows. But the only stuff left for me to say relates to Chatham, and as I've already said repeatedly, that's for a future post.