155 Chatham – Rochester – Borstal

The 155 is one of those compact local routes that punches well above its weight. In barely half an hour it threads together the bustle of Chatham Waterfront, the cathedral city of Rochester and the quiet, almost hidden village of Borstal tucked beneath the chalk bluffs on the south bank of the Medway. For anyone wanting to sample the heart of Medway without straying far from the river, it is an ideal pocket-sized adventure.

The journey begins on the cobbles of Borstal, opposite the Village Surgery, with the bus pulling away past Silver Hill and the whitewashed frontage of The White Horse pub. The road dips and rises along Borstal Street, and through the window you catch glimpses of the Medway curling below, with Rochester Bridge and the squat keep of the castle framed in the distance. Past Cookham Hill and the Foord Almshouses, the route swings down towards Rochester proper.

Into Rochester, the character shifts immediately. The bus skirts Warden Road and St Margaret's Cemetery, where weathered headstones lean among yew trees, before sliding past Watts Avenue and onto East Row. From Star Hill the cathedral tower rises ahead, and the High Street's Dickensian shopfronts (the Six Poor Travellers House, Eastgate, the half-timbered facades familiar from countless adaptations) come into view in quick succession.

Climbing again through Jacksons Fields, the bus passes St Bartholomew's Hospital, one of the oldest medical foundations in England, before dropping down New Cut to Chatham Railway Station. A short final hop brings you to Chatham Waterfront Bus Station, where the Medway opens out wide and the masts of the Historic Dockyard prick the skyline downstream.

The return leg retraces the loop in mirror image, giving you a second chance at the views you missed the first time: the castle ramparts from a different angle, the cathedral close glimpsed through a side street, the long slow climb back up to Borstal with the river falling away behind. It is a route built for slow looking, and well worth riding both ways in a single sitting.

The 155 may be a short route, but it links enough character to fill a satisfying half day out, starting from Chatham Waterfront and working back up the Medway to the quiet streets of Borstal.

Begin at Chatham Waterfront Bus Station, where the river opens wide and a short walk downstream brings you to The Historic Dockyard Chatham. Three Georgian and Victorian warships, a working ropery and the covered slips make for a substantial morning's exploration, and there is a good cafe on site for an early coffee.

Boarding the 155 at Chatham Railway Station, the climb up New Cut and past St Bartholomew's Hospital quickly delivers you into Rochester. Hop off near Star Hill or East Row and walk the High Street, taking in the Guildhall Museum, the Six Poor Travellers House and the many small independent shops that trade on the town's Dickensian associations. The Charles Dickens Centre connections are everywhere, from Eastgate House to Restoration House on Crow Lane.

From the High Street it is only a few minutes on foot to Rochester Castle, whose Norman keep is one of the tallest and best preserved in England. The grounds are a public park, free to wander, with the cathedral close immediately alongside. Rochester Cathedral itself, founded in 604, is the second oldest in the country and well worth an unhurried hour for the crypt, the medieval wall paintings and the pilgrim steps.

Lunch is easy: try one of the tearooms on the High Street, or for something more substantial the riverside pubs around Rochester Bridge offer views back across the Medway towards Strood.

Rejoin the 155 for the final leg up to Borstal. The village itself is small and residential, but the walk along the river path beneath the chalk cliffs (heading downstream towards Rochester Bridge) is a quiet pleasure, with herons on the mudflats and the cathedral framed across the water. The White Horse on Borstal Street is a welcoming spot for a closing pint before catching the bus back into Chatham.

A neat circuit that packs cathedral, castle, dockyard and riverside village into a single, very walkable day.