Ebb & Flow is an arts programme and festival celebrating life in the Chatham Intra area. Developed initially to form part of Estuary Festival 2021. We are now planning for the next Ebb & Flow festival. 

Sun Pier House CIC and Intra Arts are the creative organisations behind Ebb & Flow. We are based in the area and it gives us great pleasure to produce a programme of events to explore the history and stories on our doorsteps. Medway residents and members of the local community are invited to take part in reflecting on the changes witnessed by the ancient river, and what the future of this rapidly developing area holds. The artists we commission have links with the area too, either with their studios here or working with local community groups and organisations.

‘Chatham Intra’ is an old name for an often overlooked part of the Medway Towns, where Chatham and Rochester’s High Streets meet down near the river. Historically this name applied to a small section between the boundary of the two towns, and the railway bridge crossing the high street. For this project however, the name is being revived and extended to cover the conservation zone between Sun Pier in Chatham, and where the high street meets Star Hill in Rochester. It’s an area rich with tales of working industrial wharves, impressive theatres, brewers and pubs a-plenty, photographers, circuses, cinemas, music scenes, LGBTQ+ social lives, the destruction of great fires, pleasure trips from the piers, and leper walks.

This stretch of high street was one of four sites to receive funding from Creative Estuary - the others were in Gravesend, Southend and Tilbury. Each of the innovative Creative Estuary commissions reflected the history of their area, with the Thames Estuary and River Medway linking the four sites. Creative Estuary is a partnership of public sector and cultural organisations working together to transform 60 miles of the Thames Estuary across Essex and Kent into one of the most exciting cultural hubs in the world.

The Chatham Intra area has also been recognised in Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) programme. Medway Council have successfully secured £1.6 million of government funding to revitalise this area of the High Street and support a new cultural programme of activity.