Gravesend Heritage Quarter

"A hidden treasure reappears"

USM took over management of Gravesend’s historic market in May 2002 with the objective of reversing a poor image and years of decline. At the same time a lease was taken on ten shops in the neighbouring High Street, in a mix of new build and refurbished listed buildings.

Working closely with Gravesham Borough Council and Kent County Council, the result within two years was a virtual relaunch of the area as “The Gravesend Heritage Quarter”. The market’s trading position improved, with successive promotional events and the creation of new external covered trading spaces, while the High Street has a new mix of attractive specialist traders. As part of the upgrading of the area USM has also taken initiatives to regenerate two remarkable historic structures, the disused Town Hall which forms the High Street entrance to the market, in which the Gravesend Society’s museum is now regularly opened, and the nearby town pier on the River Thames, one of the earliest structures of its kind, which USM arranged to open to the public for an interim period pending development