Grand Magazine Project

The Grand Magazine is the centre of the main visitor route and extremely well placed to offer a range of facilities for community groups and visitors to the Fort. As part of the public consultation for Chatham World Heritage Site status, the consultation revealed considerable support for bring more buildings back into sustainable use for the local community. The Grand Magazine is considered by English Heritage as being one of the most fort’s important structures without equal anywhere. It’s a unique structure being semi underground with a large area of usable space. Repairs must be made to the roof to stop ingress of water and to seal and pave the roof as it was in the 18th century using reclaimed York stone. The detailed work involves stripping back to 1 metre the earth and broken WWII asphalt covering, finding and repairing the 18th century drainage channels, sealing area with bitumen, back filling overburden, then laying reclaimed York stone slabs to assist water run off and create amenity area.