Charles Dicken's Interpretation work

The Guildhall Museum collection was, until 2018, housed in two adjoining buildings in Rochester High Street - the Grade I listed Rochester Guildhall and the Grade II listed Conservancy Board Building.

In October 2018 Medway Council took the decision to sell the Conservancy Board Building in an effort to raise funds to carry out major restoration work on other historic sites in Rochester. The impact of the sale on The Guildhall Museum was the immediate loss of approximately 40% of its gallery space and the removal from public access of all of the museum collection therein.

Housed in the Conservancy Board Building was a small gallery dedicated to the life and work of the author Charles Dickens. Dickens’ association with Medway, and in particular Rochester, is recognised on a global scale. It is the place where Dicken’s grew up, it’s the only place he chose to return to, it’s where he lived for the last fourteen years of his life, and where he created some of his finest work.

Medway welcomes many thousands of visitors every year from around the world who come to enjoy the town of Rochester and embrace its links with the author, and in 2020 it is predicted that these numbers will increase dramatically as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death.

It is for this reason we feel the implementation of a new gallery dedicated to Charles Dickens is essential. With the closure of the Dickens World visitor attraction in Chatham in 2016 and the subsequent closure of the Conservancy Board Building last year there is now no single point of focus for the many thousands of visitors to Medway who come specifically for the Dickens experience.

We aim to open the new gallery in May/June 2020.