“I walk along here, and I think oh, I’d love that one. And that one. I have a list in my head.” Cerian Eiles is walking up Intra High Street. She’s not daydreaming about buying a home – but restoring derelict buildings. “Just think of what we could put in them.”

Just off Chatham’s struggling high street, locals are leading their own regeneration. Intra – the historic strip between Chatham and Rochester – was once a thriving hub. But after the naval dockyard closed in 1984, it slid into decline.
Today, grand Georgian façades sit alongside rows of shuttered shops and decay.
“So you have Rochester, the jewel of the Dickensian crown,” says Intra Community Trust co-chair Janet Fischer. “And then you hit Star Hill and suddenly traverse into Intra and into Chatham – and there’s some pretty significant deprivation.”
Formed by residents, the trust grew out of a Medway Council-led High Street Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) backed by Historic England. Though HAZ was time-limited, locals chose to carry it forward.
“A lot of it’s been about cultural interventions,” says Fischer – festivals, shopfront restoration, art commissions. On VE Day, a local artist painted poppies across windows down the high street. Planters and seating reclaim public space.