From the
https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Clare Freeman, 28 February 2016.
JD Wetherspoon pub chain start work on The Old Post Office, Railway
Street Chatham, to be named The Thomas Waghorn.
His statue is known for being dressed with traffic cones and safety
barriers, but Thomas Waghorn is now set to have a pub named after him.
Wetherspoon is investing £2.2 million in refurbishing The Old Post
Office in Chatham and have chosen to name the venue after the local
figure.
Work on the premises in Railway Street started on Monday and The Thomas
Waghorn is set to open on July 19, creating up to 50 jobs.
Plans include a roof terrace, refurbishing the inner courtyard,
expanding the kitchen area, installing a new front entrance and
relocating toilets to the upper floors, over 774 sq m.
Spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We are delighted development work has now
started on our new pub for Chatham. We have been keen to open a pub in
the town for a number of years and pleased this is now happening.
“We are confident the pub will be a great asset to Chatham and also
hopefully act as a catalyst for other businesses to invest in the area.”
The post office closed in 2010 and moved to Martin’s newsagents in The
Pentagon Centre and then to a One Stop shop in Military Road. The
building was taken over as a pub; first the Francis and Firkin and then
The Old Post Office.
The pub in Rochester High Street has been refurbished and extended.
Wetherspoon completed the purchase last October. It will be the
company’s second venue in the Towns and comes after a £1.5 million
expansion of the "Golden Lion" in Rochester.
The extension saw them purchase the premises next door, previously
occupied by the Thai Four Two restaurant, and the creation of nine
en-suite hotel rooms.
The company has also submitted plans to Medway Council to bring the
"Railway," Station Road, Rainham, back into use and is still looking for a
site in Gillingham after pulling out of a plan to buy former DIY shop
Fads in Green Street.
Sailor, explorer and mail pioneer.
Born in Chatham on July 16, 1800, Thomas Waghorn was a postal pioneer
who developed a new shipping route between Britain and India. His route,
via Egypt, reduced the journey from 16,000 miles or three months to
6,000 miles and just 35 to 45 days.
At the age of 12 he joined the Royal Navy at Chatham as a midshipman on
the HMS Bahama. After leaving the Navy as a lieutenant in 1832, he made
the journey to India via Egypt as an experiment to send mail.
The Thomas Waghorn statue in Railway Street, Chatham, complete with road
barrier accessory
It took four-and-a-half months but on his way back, he met the Pasha of
Egypt, who supported his desert route idea. Waghorn later turned his
attention to speeding up the post in Europe using the new railway
system.
He was married twice, and lived with his second wife, Harriet Martin, in
Rochester. He died at his home in Islington in January 1850 and is
buried at All Saints’ Church in Snodland.
The statue in Railway Street was installed in 1888.
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