Schools in Chatham

Georgian dockyard walls and Victorian barracks define the industrial waterfront that made Chatham one of the Royal Navy's most important yards for three centuries. The town is part of the Medway conurbation in north Kent, sharing its urban fabric with Rochester, Gillingham, and Strood, with around 80,000 people living across the town by 2020. Lordswood, to the southwest, is among the most sought-after pockets for school catchments in the area, drawing families who compete for places in a cluster of popular state schools. Walderslade and Princes Park extend the residential belt further inland, while Chatham Maritime has transformed the former dockyard's eastern reaches into apartments, restaurants, and a marina. The dockyard closed in 1984. Its surviving Georgian buildings now house the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum, its exhibits including the Cold War submarine HMS Ocelot. Chatham railway station links the town to London Victoria in around fifty minutes on the Chatham Main Line.