ONCE, Chatham Dockyard on the River Medway was one of the biggest dockyards in the country, employing thousands of men and women to make boats for the Royal Navy.
Closed in 1984, the dockyard has since been converted into a museum; its silent acres filled with industrial skeletons in the form of cranes, anti-aircraft guns, wooden figureheads, rusting anchors and long corridors of warehouses. Above one such warehouse, up a fire escape next to a naval bookshop, you will find the painting studio of Billy Childish, musician, artist, writer and poet.