Pioneering customers found their way to the bar at the opening of the new JD Wetherspoon pub - named after famed 19thC postal pioneer Thomas Waghorn.

Wetherspoon has spent over £2.2 million on renovating the former post office in Railway Street, and the Thomas Waghorn finally opened its doors today.

Medway's second Wetherspoon, the pub is appropriately named after the 19th Century pioneer who created a new mail route from England to India in the 1800s and is commemorated with a nearby statue.

The new pub has two floors, with the bar on the ground floor and an external terraced area with seating, which leads down to the courtyard garden and a designated smoking area.

An original stone arch entrance and several other original features remain from the pub's former life as a post office, dating back to 1902.

Opening hours are 8am to midnight from Sundays to Thursdays, and 8am to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, with food served until 11pm.

Specialising in real ales from around the country including Kent breweries, the pub will also serve a range of craft and world beers.

Among the first punters were Andrew Ashbee from Snodland Museum, who has written a book - Zeal Unabated: The Life of Thomas Fletcher Waghorn - and Clive Bradburn, who is writing his own tome on the explorer.