University for the Creative Arts, Rochester

The University for the Creative Arts, Rochester, commonly UCA Rochester, was a specialist arts campus in Kent, England. Established in 1970, the campus closed in September 2023. Situated on a 1.82-acre site overlooking the River Medway, it included a 1970s Brutalist building. Notable alumni include Tracey Emin, Zandra Rhodes, Karen Millen, and Stephen Webster. The site is currently vacant pending redevelopment.

University for the Creative Arts, Rochester (UCA Rochester) was a campus of the University for the Creative Arts located on Fort Pitt Hill in Rochester, Kent, England.^[1] The site occupied the summit of a ridge between Rochester and Chatham and was historically significant as part of the grounds of Fort Pitt, a fort and military hospital from the Napoleonic period.

Historic England records that the modern campus building was not listed, but the ground beneath it lies inside the Fort Pitt Scheduled Ancient Monument, meaning that parts of the old fort remain below the site.^[2]

Fort Pitt Hill was used for both military and educational purposes long before an art college was built there. The hill contained the Fort Pitt Military Hospital from the early nineteenth century until it closed in 1922.^[3] In September 1929, the War Department sold the property to the Chatham Education Board for £6,000.^[4] The former hospital was immediately converted into the Fort Pitt Technical Day School for Girls, which later became Fort Pitt Grammar School.^[2] In 1932, the remaining nineteenth-century casemated barracks and blockhouse were removed to allow for school expansion.^[5] While proposals for a larger technical college on the site were put on hold as war approached in 1936, the grammar school continued to occupy the hilltop site, which it still does today.^[6] Students from the Rochester School of Art also took part in local life on the hill, appearing in the Rochester Pageant, attending Centenary Day, and presenting murals to Gillingham Borough Council in 1931, 1980, and 1986.^[7]

The new art and design college was in September 1970. It opened as the Medway College of Design and provided courses in practical and creative subjects. The college later became part of the Kent Institute of Art & Design,^[8] which was merged with related institutions in 2005 to create the University College for the Creative Arts.^[9] The name University for the Creative Arts (UCA) was adopted in 2008.^[10]

A bid for city status in Medway brought together local authorities and organisations, including Medway Council, Historic Dockyard Chatham, and the University for the Creative Arts. Despite highlighting its universities, cathedral and regeneration, Medway’s bids in 2000 and 2002 were unsuccessful.^[11]

In 2021, UCA announced that the Rochester campus would close in September 2023.^[12] The university stated that around £17 million would be required to renovate the Fort Pitt Hill building and that this cost could not be met.^[13] The decision drew criticism from local residents and politicians who believed that the site was valuable for access to education.^[14] Rochester’s Member of Parliament, Kelly Tolhurst, described the closure as disappointing and warned that selling the land for housing would remove opportunities for local students.

Community groups sought to register the campus as an Asset of Community Value to protect its educational role. Medway Council rejected the application in 2022 after concluding that the campus did not meet the criteria for a broad public use.^[15]

Plans to redevelop the former UCA Rochester campus into 128 flats were announced in September 2023, shortly after the site's closure. The proposal by architects Child Graddon Lewis involved converting the 1970s building into studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, split across upper and lower blocks.^[16]

In January 2025, Fort Pitt Limited bought the 1.82-acre site for £2.8 million, shifting from the original 128 flats to a "regenerative housing" project. This plan retains the structurally sound building to minimize carbon emissions, targeting 90-110 homes instead of full demolition.^[17]

By February 2025, Medway Council approved a detailed application for the former college.^[18]

• Abandoned courtyard of the college grounds
• One of the many vandalised toilets
• The former Fashion Media + Promotion room
• Roof of the building
• Abandoned classroom
• One of the many corridors inside the building
• Views from the roof
• Significant water damage inside one of the rooms

• Hope Macaulay – Fashion Textiles graduate at UCA Rochester; known for sustainable knits worn by Naomi Osaka and Gigi Hadid and featured in fashion magazines.^[19]
• Stephen Webster MBE – Jewellery designer who studied at Medway College of Design in Rochester; later founded his brand and became a figure in contemporary British jewellery.^[20]
• Dame Zandra Rhodes – Fashion designer and textile artist who studied at Medway College of Design in Rochester; later became a fashion icon and Chancellor Emerita of UCA.^[21]
• Tracey Emin – Artist who studied at Medway College of Design in Rochester; later became internationally known for autobiographical and confessional work and was Turner Prize-nominated.^[22]
• Billy Childish – Artist, poet and musician who studied at Medway College of Design in Rochester; later co-founded Stuckism and produced a prolific body of paintings, writing and music.^[23]
• Karen Millen OBE – Fashion designer who studied at Medway College of Design in Rochester; later co-founded the Karen Millen label and became a major figure in British womenswear.^[24]

• Wendy Dagworthy OBE – Fashion designer and academic who took a two-year foundation course at UCA Rochester; later headed fashion at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins.^[25]