Looking at Chatham, England.
Upon the High Street.
Photography & text by Joshua Atkins
& Daniel Loveday.
Upon the High Street is a photographic collaboration between Joshua Atkins and Daniel Loveday, documenting Chatham’s High Street and the surrounding streets. The work looks closely at the people, businesses and spaces that make up the town, offering an unfiltered view of a place shaped by both its history and its ongoing change.
Chatham has long been defined by its connection to the dockyard and army barracks, forming a strong working-class identity that remains visible throughout the town. The closure of the dockyard in 1984 marked a significant turning point, bringing economic uncertainty and leaving a lasting impact on the community. Yet Chatham has continued to adapt.
Over the past two decades, Chatham’s population has become increasingly diverse, bringing new cultures, communities and identities to the town. The High Street has become a meeting point of different cultures, languages and experiences, creating a constantly shifting landscape. These photographs were made in the years following the 2016 Brexit referendum, a period that brought questions around identity, belonging and immigration to the surface. In Medway, 64.1% of voters chose to leave the European Union.
Alongside these social changes, the High Street itself is undergoing a quieter transformation. Independent shops and long-standing businesses are disappearing, replaced by empty units, ‘To Let’ signs, vape shops and the increasingly familiar absence of the traditional high-street retailer. Online shopping and next-day delivery have changed the way people use these spaces, perhaps leaving behind what could be considered the last generation of regular High Street shoppers.
But the High Street is far from empty of life.
People continue to occupy these spaces, meeting, working, trading and passing through them every day. The streets retain traces of what they once were while simultaneously becoming something new.
Upon the High Street is a portrait of Chatham in transition, a town where the remnants of its industrial past sit alongside new communities and changing ways of life. More broadly, it reflects the condition of High Streets across the UK: places caught between decline and renewal, where history, culture and everyday life continue to exist side by side.
