185 Chatham – Ordnance Street – Pattens Lane – Davis Estate

The 185 is one of the genuinely useful little circulars that knit the Medway towns together, run by ASD Coaches from Chatham Waterfront Bus Station and threading a route up into the hillside suburbs above Rochester. It is not a flashy tourist run, but if you enjoy seeing how a town actually lives, and want a window seat for the changing layers of Chatham, it makes for a quietly rewarding hour.

From Stop A7 at the Waterfront, the bus pulls past Chatham Railway Station and out along Ordnance Street, the road that takes its name from the Royal Engineers and naval ordnance yards that once defined this part of town. The shops give way to terraced housing, and you climb almost immediately, the river dropping away behind you. Glimpses of the Medway and the masts at the Historic Dockyard appear in the wing mirrors as the bus turns inland.

The next stretch follows Pattens Lane, a long, winding climb between St John's Infant School, Corkwell Street and Blenheim Avenue. This is classic Chatham: tight Victorian terraces stepped up the hillside, front doors opening straight onto the pavement, gulls circling overhead. As the bus passes Atlanta Court and Old Pattens Lane, the view opens out across the rooftops to Fort Pitt and the wooded ridge beyond.

Past Robert Bean Lodge and Ewart Road the houses become more interwar, and at Wilson Avenue and Huntsmans Corner the route reaches one of the high points of the round. From the top deck of a double, or even from the side window of a single, you can see right across the Medway valley on a clear day. The bus then drops down Horsted Way into the Davis Estate proper.

The Davis Estate is a planned 1930s garden suburb, all curving avenues, grass verges and bay-windowed semis. The 185 traces almost every loop of it, calling at Tiger Moth (a nod to the De Havilland aircraft once built nearby at Rochester Airport), Greenway, Amethyst Avenue, Concord Avenue, Vale Drive Play Area, Horsted Primary School and Watson Avenue. It is a calm, green corner of Medway that most visitors never see, and the bus is the easiest way to take it in.

Having wound through the estate, the 185 retraces its way back over Horsted Way, down past Wallace Road and Ewart Road, returning along Pattens Lane to Ordnance Street and the Waterfront. By the time you step off at Stop A7 you have seen Chatham from the river up to the hilltops and back, all on a single fare.

The 185 is not a long-distance scenic dash but a local circular, and that is exactly what makes it a good basis for a slow, curious half day exploring Chatham on foot and by bus. Start at Chatham Waterfront Bus Station with a coffee from one of the cafes along the river, and watch the boats on the Medway before boarding at Stop A7.

Stay on for the first few stops to Chatham Railway Station and Ordnance Street. Hop off here if you want a short detour to the Great Lines Heritage Park, the broad open ridge above the town that links Chatham, Gillingham and Brompton. The views across to the Historic Dockyard cranes and the river bend are some of the best in Medway, and the park itself is dotted with memorials to the naval and military past.

Back on the 185, ride up Pattens Lane to the top of the hill. The climb itself is part of the appeal, with the terraces of Victorian Chatham stepping away below you. Around Huntsmans Corner and Wilson Avenue you are at the edge of the wooded slopes that fringe the Davis Estate, and on a bright day the rooftops of Rochester spread out in the distance, with the castle keep just visible.

Stay on into the Davis Estate itself. Get off near Horsted Primary School or Vale Drive Play Area and take a wander through the curving avenues. This is a fascinating, almost unchanged example of interwar suburban planning, and the street names alone, Amethyst Avenue, Concord Avenue, Tiger Moth, tell the story of the era. It is quiet, leafy and rewarding for anyone interested in social history or twentieth-century architecture.

From the estate, pick up the 185 again as it loops back. Ride down through Horsted Way and Pattens Lane, this time enjoying the descent and the gradually reappearing river view. Hop off at Chatham Station for a short walk to the Historic Dockyard, where you can spend the rest of the day with HMS Cavalier, HMS Gannet and the Victorian Ropery, or simply stroll the covered slips.

Round the day off back at the Waterfront with fish and chips by the river, or head into Rochester High Street, a short ride or twenty minute walk away, for a wander past the cathedral, castle and Dickensian shopfronts. The 185 will not take you to any famous landmark on its own, but used cleverly it stitches together a properly local day out in Medway.