Work to redevelop Mountbatten House in Chatham gets underway

Mountbatten House in Chatham town centre

The redevelopment of a 12-storey office block in Chatham town centre into flats and a rooftop restaurant is underway.

Mountbatten House, which sits above the Pentagon Centre, is set to be converted and extended to create 164 flats, a rooftop restaurant and ground floor commercial space.

Asbestos removal has already been completed, with mechanical and electrical strip out works expected to start in spring this year and be completed by the autumn to prepare the building for conversion.

Medway Council is currently in the process of awarding a company the contract to complete the strip out works following a procurement process.

A CGI showing how Mountbatten House could look following redevelopment. Photo: Medway Development Company

​The next stage will see detailed design for the main works commence to enable the timetabling and delivery of the construction phase.

Work to demolish the old bus station ramps beside the office block were completed at the beginning of 2022, which will make way for a new public square and an improved taxi rank as part of the redevelopment.

Medway Council's own housing firm, Medway Development Company, is behind the scheme after the council bought the empty office block for nearly £2m in 2021.

The redevelopment has been earmarked to cost around £30m and was designed by architect firms Lyall Bills & Young and C.F. Møller.

The boarded-up entrance to Mountbatten House, which was last used in 2008

One of the empty office floors inside Mountbatten House before work began. Photo: Medway Council

​The work comes more than a decade after Mountbatten House was last occupied, which once housed major banking firms including Scottish Widows and Black Horse Financial until its eventual closure in 2008.

It was built in 1975 as a custom-made office building for Lloyds Bank and designed by Lister Drew & Associates.

The office block was built by contractors John Laing using its Laingwall prefabrication system, seen as a highly innovative building method at the time.