Bridge Chamber Plaque - Rochester, Kent, ME1 1QE. - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

A bronze plaque mounted on the present Rochester Bridge Chamber. It reads;

ROCHESTER BRIDGE / THE BRIDGE CHAMBER / ERECTED IN 1879 UPON THE SITE OF THE FORMER CHAMBER / THE MEDIAEVAL STONE BRIDGE BUILT BY SIR ROBERT DE KNOLLES AND / SIR JOHN DE COBHAM IN THE REIGN OF KING RICHARD II [ABOUT 1387] AND / DEMOLISHED IN THE YEAR 1856 CROSSED THE RIVER OPPOSITE THIS SPOT. / THE ESPLANADE WAS CONSTRUCTED WITH THE MATERIALS AND / THE BALUSTRADING IS THAT TAKEN FROM THE BRIDGE. / ADJOINING ARE THE RUINS OF THE ANCIENT BRIDGE CHAPEL.

From the Rochester Bridge Trust website

Since Roman times a bridge has crossed the River Medway at Rochester, and since medieval times the Wardens and Assistants of Rochester Bridge have maintained this strategic river crossing. Today the Rochester Bridge Trust owns and maintains the two A2 bridges and the service bridge at Rochester, crossings as important for today's traffic and modern life as at any time in our history.

The Bridge Chamber is first mentioned in the records in the wardens' accounts for 1398, but little is known about the medieval bridge chamber. During the reformation of the bridge administration in the late 16th century, a new bridge chamber was constructed between July and September 1585. This building comprised the upper storey of a newly built house adjoining the redundant bridge chapel on the north and featured a stained glass window of Normandy glass displaying the arms of Elizabeth I.

In 1627, a new bridge chamber was constructed above the western entrance to The Crown Inn yard at the cost of £101 4s. 5d. Approached from a staircase in the inn yard at the rear of the building, this 17th-century bridge chamber, or audit chamber as it was called in the accounts, was furnished with tables, two red leather chairs, and twelve stools for the meetings of the two wardens and 12 assistants. In 1735, this furniture was replaced with a set of 14 walnut chairs, followed in 1785 by a further set of 14 mahogany chairs, both sets inlaid with the wardens' coat of arms.

In January 1876 the Corporation of Rochester, who had obtained the lease to The Queen's Arms Public House adjacent to the old Bridge Chamber, announced its intention to pull down the public house and construct a new road now known as Castle Hill. The removal of the building, however, revealed an intermingled boundary between the Bridge Chamber and the public house.

The Wardens and Assistants first resolved to build a new boundary wall to support the overhanging first storey of the Bridge Chamber, but by March 1877 they had purchased from the Earl of Jersey the freehold of the site of the former public house and had decided to tear down the old Bridge Chamber and build a new, larger building on the combined site.