Double Glazing in Gillingham and Rainham

Gillingham grew as a line of development from Brompton, on the edge of the dockyard’s defences, out to the railway station, and much of that growth was New Brompton, built east of the Chatham Lines to house the dockyard’s workers. The lines themselves, the dockyard’s landward defences, now form part of the Great Lines Heritage Park. Much of the older town is made up of terraced streets from that period. On a bay-fronted terrace, windows that follow the original divisions of the bay make the biggest difference to how the front looks.

Rainham was a separate village until it joined Gillingham in 1929, and it grew after the railway arrived in 1858 and again after the line was electrified in 1959. That second wave brought the Parkwood estate, built mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, and the suburbs of Twydall, Wigmore and Hempstead spread out around it. Houses like these usually have simple openings that suit modern uPVC casements, and a better front door or wider doors onto the garden can transform them.

Medway Council is the planning authority for Gillingham and Rainham. In the Gillingham Park conservation area it has made an Article 4 direction covering houses in Park Avenue, Malvern Road, Holmside, Stuart Road and parts of Oxford Road, Cleave Road, Nelson Road and Napier Road, and another covers streets in Brompton, including Saunders Street, Trinity Road and parts of Marlborough Road.

In those streets, replacing the front windows or door, where they face the road, needs planning permission first. Across the rest of Gillingham and Rainham, swapping windows for ones of a similar appearance does not normally need permission, and the council’s list shows exactly which addresses are covered.

Check the rules with Medway Council