The building stock

Kent has a long relationship with London's building history. Kentish ragstone — a hard grey limestone quarried around Maidstone — was shipped up the Thames from the medieval period onward and used extensively in London's city walls and churches, as well as in Kent's own parish churches and grander houses. The county was also, for centuries, one of London's principal sources of brick, fired from local clay and barged up the river; the fine gauged red rubber brick used for Georgian doorcases and arches across London very often has its origins in Kent brickworks.

Locally, Kent's building stock varies by geology — ragstone toward the Medway towns, Tunbridge Wells sandstone in the west of the county around Royal Tunbridge Wells, and a strong brick and weatherboard vernacular in the Wealden villages and market towns.

What we do in Kent

Ragstone is a robust material, but its rough, irregular natural face needs the same respect we give Bargate stone in Surrey — cleaning that preserves the texture rather than smooths it. DOFF is generally suitable, calibrated to the specific condition of the stone and its pointing.

On red rubber brick — whether on Kent's own Georgian buildings or the London properties whose gauged brickwork often originated from Kent clay — we apply the same gentle-hand principle throughout: no acid, no abrasive methods, poultice preferred for localised staining, and lime mortar in fine joints for any repointing.

Tunbridge Wells sandstone, used locally for building and famously for the town's Pantiles paving and outcrops, needs its own assessment — sandstone behaves differently from the oolitic limestones (Portland, Bath) that dominate our usual London work, particularly around bedding-plane orientation and biological growth on horizontal surfaces.

Areas we cover

  • Rochester
  • Sevenoaks
  • Tunbridge Wells
  • Canterbury
  • Maidstone
  • Tonbridge
  • Chatham
  • Faversham
  • Cranbrook
  • Westerham

Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone quarried in the Maidstone area, shipped up the Thames since the medieval period. It forms part of London's surviving city wall and appears in many of the capital's older parish churches, as well as extensively in Kent's own historic buildings. Its rough, irregular natural face is part of its character and shouldn't be smoothed by an inappropriate cleaning method.

Yes. Kent has been part of our operating area alongside London and Surrey since we started, and the site visit is free within our normal coverage.

Yes. Red rubber (gauged) brick is a finer, softer, more precisely cut brick traditionally used for decorative work — arches, doorcases, fine dressings — and it's considerably less forgiving of aggressive cleaning than the plainer London stock brick used for general terrace facing. We treat it as its own category, with poultice cleaning preferred over steam for localised staining.

Yes, and we're used to the additional layer of approval this involves where a building is a church in current use — typically requiring engagement with the relevant Diocese alongside the local planning authority's conservation officer.