English Heritage claims Restoration House, immortalised in the works of Charles Dickens, is “under threat” after a housing development sprang up next door.
The agency’s regional director said four houses are being built on land which was once part of the Crow Lane property’s garden and urged Medway council bosses to reverse their decision to allow the construction work to go ahead.
Dr Andy Brown said the grade one listed building, which was the basis for Miss Havisham’s Satis House in Dickens’ Great Expectations, needed to be protected.
He said: “We know Dickens spent a lot of time looking for settings for stories in all sorts of parts of North Kent. He borrowed the name Satis House from another house close to the castle, but this is the place he based it on.
“The garden wall is the wall Pip is looking over when he sees Estella.
“This is a town that bases much of its tourist industry on Charles Dickens, and yet they would give planning permission for this next door to a site like this.
“The whole process was deeply flawed. We didn’t know anything about it until this January when they started building.”
During the construction of the new homes, builders came across a Tudor-era wall, part of which has since been knocked down.
Dr Brown said English Heritage was urging the council to order the reinstatement of the wall and the houses, which are partly completed, to be demolished.
He added: “We would welcome constructive talks with all parties to ensure these issues are resolved to preserve some of the most important buildings in Rochester which have a romantic association with fans of Dickens throughout the world.”
A Medway council spokesman said: “We have discussed the planning issues with the owners of the adjacent Restoration House, with the developers and with English Heritage.
“We are currently considering the statement from English Heritage and taking our own legal advice before deciding how we can proceed.”
Mave Helden, a director of developers Future Homes, insisted the company had done nothing wrong and said it had no intention of knocking down any more of the Tudor wall.
She said: “Nobody knew the wall was there when work started, when they discovered it they stopped work on it.
“Listed or not we would have kept it.”
POSTED: 13/05/2008 09:20:25