The official opening of a new £1 million home for businesses on top of shipping containers was interrupted by the sound of trains rumbling overhead.

The formal launch of the Medway Innovation Studios had to be halted briefly as the thundering of HS1 services halted a celebratory speech by Medway Council’s economic growth chief Cllr Jane Chitty.

The 15 plush offices on Canal Road sit on top of 18 shipping containers offering storage for the new tenants – and next to the railway line on the Rochester Bridge.

Businesses hailed the proximity of Strood station – with its connections to St Pancras and Charing Cross – laughing off the noise from trains running overhead roughly every 15 minutes.

“It is noisy in the summer with the windows open but in the morning when I have them closed, it’s not too bad,” said Richard Bain, director of Jetstream Tours, which is renting a 20 ft office.

Every space has already been let at the studios, which was paid for with the help of a £600,000 grant from the government’s Coastal Communities Fund.

Kerry Patrick, a director of Decorum, said: “This place is fantastic, different, quirky and we are right by the river with lovely views.

“It’s very reasonable aswell. It’s cost effective.”

Construction took about 10 weeks and was managed by CargoTek, a specialist in shipping container buildings owned by Brighton-based developer QED.

Managing director Ross Gilbert said: “It’s something robust, affordable and quick.

“This acts like Lego. Everything above ground was done off site in a factory.

“Hopefully everyone here gets to know each other. In a start-up environment you want people to talk to each other at the water cooler and if you can share communal facilities it lowers your cost.”

Cllr Chitty, who laughed off the locomotive interruption to her speech on Thursday, said Medway Council had been looking for a good use for the site for a decade before the shipping container solution for businesses was put forward.

She said: “When it was first mooted about containers a few years ago I was very sceptical. How do you translate them into the type of premises that businesses really would like to go into?

“We went to London to visit some of the projects they have done there. Some were awful but some were really very stylish and good.

“That gave me the courage to think it could work here. What we’re seeing today is absolutely brilliant.”