Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Annotations
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“A large house used for official business and for the accommodation of offical visitors.” (L&M, iii.153.n.4.)
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it be in Rochester?
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This Hill-house is at Chatham, said to be haunted; included the navy Treasurer’s chamber; overlooked the Chatham yard.
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Hill House was located on the corner of Dock Lane (now Dock Road) and Red Cat Lane, just North of Chatham Church, and overlooking the Old (Henry VIII’s) Dockyard. By the time Pepys was writing the Dockyard had moved north to its present location and the old yard had become Gun Wharf.
Hill House was an existing property rented by the navy for the use of its senior officers (Pepys included) when visiting the dockyard. When the “new” dockyard was built at the present site Hill House remained in use as the pay office for the dockyard and it is included in Dumner’s great survey of the late 17th century.
It remained until the late 1770s when the Navy Board acquired the adjoining field (Hill House Field) and demolished it to build the RM Barracks.
The site is currently occupied by Medway Council Offices.