Rochester and Strood Looking Up

Quite apart from the Rochester Airport improvements I mentioned yesterday, there are several other items of good news within the Rochester and Strood parliamentary constituency that is represented by Mark Reckless MP.

In Rochester West ward is the news that the historic Eastgate House on the High Street, effectively made famous by Charles Dickens via references to this Tudor town house in two of his stories, is to receive substantial funding to re-vitalise this always-popular tourist attraction within historic Rochester.

Real life is full of ups and downs, and for Eastgate House the last several years have not been as good as they had been previously, for various real-world reasons. This two-million Pound investment is just the kind of boost the place needs (follow the link for some more detail, which is worth realising in order to better understand this sentence) and comes at just the right time...


Meanwhile, across the river in urban Strood, a public house that boasted its own Dickens connections but suffered significant fire damage some nine months ago, has been bought at auction by a local enthusiast who clearly strongly desires to restore the Crispin and Crispianus to its former glory. Indeed, the purchaser paid considerably over the odds to be sure of getting it. Now that's dedication!

I have walked past the place a few times during this year, and it makes for a sad image indeed. Once again, though, life has its ups as well as its downs, and this latest news is welcome indeed! I shall make a point of visiting the place after it re-opens – even though it's something of a trek from here and means a special outing for me, even if I were to go there by 'bus (which is another option, if I plan it fairly precisely in advance).

Incidentally, that area has had at least one other fire in the last year, in nearby Barton Road, behind the Beaney Bakery. The remnants look quite ghastly on the latest Google Street View image of that place, dated July of this year (the previous image had been taken before the fire). Let's hope there isn't a trend developing around those parts!

Thus we can see that, even in a world and our own nation full of generally bad news as it usually is these days, there is still good stuff happening. If the cold and frosty weather is getting you down, and your newspaper (or other news resource) isn't offering much good news in among the doom and gloom, perhaps these indicative stories will help put the spring back in your step – even though 'spring' as such is still a few months away!