New life has ignited a town’s former fire station.

A disused Victorian building underneath the arches in New Road, Chatham has been transformed into a Nepalese restaurant.

Gurkha Fire has been created by the owners an award-winning eatery already based in the town and officially opened at the weekend.

Guests including the mayor of Medway Cllr Nina Gurung who attended the ceremony where they were offered a range of Nepalese, Indian and Indo-Chinese cuisine.

The business was founded by professional chefs Keshav and Raju Kandel whose exotic dishes have attracted customers from all over Kent at their other eatery Dylan’s in the High Street.

The two senior cooks moved to Medway from London where they worked for Dishoom which has a string of highly-rated restaurants across the capital.

They said: “We are ready to bring this venue back to the public.

“The old Chatham fire station is iconic and from the feedback and reviews we have had so far we have no doubt that our food and service will bring something special to the area.

“This is our home now and we want to bring our experience and passion to make it the best possible experience for our customers.”

The old retained fire station closed several years ago and the building was bought by Medway Council as part of its multi-million pound regeneration plans for Chatham.

It was converted and opened as the Fire Station Brasserie in 2019.

But the leaseholders left in July last year two years after being impacted by the Covid lockdown and difficulties in getting suitable hospitality staff.

Cllr Harinder Mahil, a business partner and friend, said: “I was born and raised in Chatham, so bringing the old fire station back to use and opening it to the public is really important to me.

“It's an iconic building and part of our childhoods.

“It's also part of the wider regeneration of Chatham and we are really proud to play our part in adding to that.

“That has also meant locally employing over 11 new full-time equivalent jobs, providing training and development for our staff who we hope to build up from there and spread out and take their skills and passions with them.

“We want to be a marker for quality in Medway.”