Rochester
At the end of every year, as many people do, I reflect on the past with the usual questions of what went well, what didn’t, what can I improve, and what I would like for the next year. One thing that came to mind was that I wanted to travel more this year, not just to different parts of the world but also to places outside of London. I think when you live in a city for a really long time, or even your whole life, you end up taking that place for granted. There might be so much happening in your comfort zone it seems pointless to venture farther. So this year I announced to my friends that I wanted to take monthly day-trips away from London, but the rule was that it had to be a maximum of an hour away. I didn’t want to spend more than 2 hours travelling there and back, especially on a full day’s exploring.
For the first of what I hope to be many day trips I chose to visit Rochester with a friend. It’s a town 30 miles east of London and a 40-minute train journey from St Pancras Station. I was surprised to see Rochester Castle from the station car park - our starting point for the day.
Rochester Castle
The castle is strategically placed astride the London Road, guarding an important crossing of the River Medway. It’s an imposing fortress with a complex history of destruction and rebuilding. Rochester Castle was built around 1127 by William of Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury, and stands at 113 feet tall with three floors (not including its underground chambers).
Whilst trying to find the entrance to the castle, we had noticed many small groups of people busy with their phones. In this modern day it hardly seems worth pointing out, but plenty of them were dressed in various fancy-dress costumes, from subtle Sherlock Holmes-style hats to several Marvel Superheroes, and even a team that made the components of a Full English Breakfast! We shortly realised that they had all gathered together to solve some sort of giant interactive puzzle. Further investigation lead me to realise that they were playing a city-wide detective adventure hosted by Cluedupp, which is the world’s first virtual murder-mystery company. It would have been enough if that was all I saw in Rochester that day - what a great start to our trip!
Once we had wandered over the grounds and located the entrance, we headed to the gift shop to buy our tickets. Due to restoration works in the castle we entered through a side-passageway rather than exiting through the gift shop to start our tour, and yes we were disappointed that we couldn’t exit through the gift shop! My friend picked up the audio guide for an additional £1 and we listened to the stories that came from it at each checkpoint.
This is when I always regret not bringing my wide-angle with me, but as it was a full day of exploring I didn’t want to carry that extra weight and it wouldn’t have produced video very well due to its age. Each new turn and every new floor had me excited to explore, but those stone staircases were definitely made for someone who had longer legs. By the end my knees were protesting!
The view from the battlements was stunning despite the rolling grey clouds above. I even managed to capture the old U-475 Black Widow submarine currently moored at Strood, on the River Medway. It always amazes me that by just changing your height perspective you can get a completely different story. Looking down onto the castle grounds I noticed that the grass has been discoloured in clearly defined shapes, but due to what was a mystery.
Rochester Art Gallery
To give our knees some rest and to seek out our lunch we wandered down the main high street and found ourselves in Rochester Art Gallery.
This is found on the ground floor of the Medway Visitor Information Centre and features a changing programme of contemporary visual art. Whilst we were there we caught the collection ‘Feels like Forever Ago’ by Daisy Parris and Laurie Vincent, who is one half of the punk duo Slaves. The collaborative duo met at university and carried on their artistic relationship ever since. It was interesting to see some of their earlier works, which were rooted in a post-punk iconographical collage style, and commented on the social and cultural fabric of the world around them. Their newer works have a more refined approach, where everything is kept in a state of flux between chaos and order. Almost seemingly coming from one mind, it is difficult to see where one artist’s influence ends and the other begins.
“Tripe. Abstract whimsical rubbish with no real drawing or immersion units. When will this gallery start showing the real talent of midway? It seems to be run by a little mafia exalting friends. The abstract wishy-washy nonsense sculpts of art Marxist agenda and well-relating drivel.”
It is always surprising how art moves people in such different ways. This was evident from the guestbook, where one visitor had taken the time to write an extensively negative essay about the work. You could just feel the disgust dripping from those lines. But in the words of Whoopi Goldberg, “Art and life are subjective. Not everyone’s gonna dig what I dig, but I reserve the right to dig it.”
Rochester Cathedral
This is the second oldest cathedral in England, having been founded in AD604, and it is located in the heart of Rochester. The present building dates back to the work of the French monk Gundulf (no, not that Gandalf) in 1080. It has a mixture of historical architecture from across time including some late Gothic styles seen in the Chapter Library door, and Norman styles in its crypt and nave.
We tried also to find a few of the slightly disturbing Green Men pagan symbols dotted around the ceiling, but we didn’t spot any. Originally, the Green Man carving represented fertility and the image was used as a way of converting people to the Romans’ new faith by signifying new life. But the ones we found had rather creepy appearances, with branches coming out of their mouths, scary eyes and phallic noses. In medieval times it was believed that their gruesome faces, along with the gargoyles outside the building, kept evil spirits away.
As a photographer I always spend some time looking at the floor as well as what is around me and what I did find were many of these cast iron shapes around the cathedral. I wondered if they were special people, and if these were actually markers on the floors of their tombs.
Another thing that I quite liked was the decoration of the tiles and soft furnishings. The builders were quite enamoured with red and yellow, colours which I assume were meant to symbolise wealth.
The crypt has had extensive renovations and was reopened in 2016. It now showcases documents, stonework, paintings and other historical artefacts that were previously hidden from public view. Like so many others, you can find a cafe in the crypt, and they use local produce with all proceeds going to keep the cathedral open.
Taken from Canterbury Archaeological Trust website
Eastgate House
This large Grade I Elizabethan town house is just off the high street in Rochester and is notable for its association with the author Charles Dickens. The house featured as Westgate in The Pickwick Papers and as the Nun’s house in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was passed down through generations of one family until 1791 when it was occupied by James Reed. Either Reed or his widow then set up the house as a school.
I’m glad we stepped into the building, not just to escape the rain but also because we enjoyed the journey through the history of the house. I loved the shadow puppet silhouette style that was used as the introduction video to the house. Following the original staircase upwards we found ourselves between two rooms, the first being the Buck family room, which boasted the most decorative plaster ceiling I’ve ever seen. The ceiling dates back to the late sixteenth century and is filled with geometric patterns and panels embellished with floral motifs, the arms of Sir Peter and those of his second wife. Decoration of such type and detail was unusual in townhouses. Having an ornate patterned ceiling later became a new means of expressing wealth and status. It was a shame that in the gift shop there wasn’t a full image of the ceiling in postcard form as my camera really didn’t do the works justice.
The second room was the grand reception room, used to receive King James when he visited to inspect the navy at the Chatham dockyard. Small details like these white and blue tiles found at the fireplace really caught my eye, whilst the fake food took my friend’s eye instead.
On the top floor, I found the man himself, Charles Dickens, seated at this desk ready for some writing. There is also a mystery for visitors to solve but I won’t take the fun out of telling you the answers. In one of the last rooms there was a rack of clothes for dressing up in, and in true form my friend switched her top clothes for a white shirt, waistcoat and dapper-looking jacket with tails. I’m always impressed by the clothing of the past especially for the rich, as a lot of detail and attention would have gone into them.
How much did it cost?
The total cost of this trip came to just over £36 and with almost half of that being the return train from St Pancras (£17) and the other being the cost of entrance fees; Rochester Castle £6.40 (+£1 for the audio guide) and Eastgate House £5.50. I thought that this was money well spent. To keep costs down even further I would recommend taking a packed lunch and some snacks. If we had done that then I think we could of kept the day’s spending to just under £30. Other ways to keep the day costs down would be to purchase an English Heritage membership, use any railcards you can, and book your travel as far in advance as possible.
Break down of costs:
Travel
£17 return train tickets from London St Pancras
Entrance fees to sights
£6.40 Rochester Castle, additional £1 for the audio guide
£5.50 Eastgate House
£0 Cathedral
Food
£7 lunch at Cafe172, a Full English and a pot of tea
£1.50 Deaf Cat Cafe, a slice of cake before the journey home
Total: £36.40
I really enjoyed myself on this day trip and it has cemented my interest in travelling and exploring more of this island that I call home.
