Bishop of Rochester Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was founded as a cathedral in 604. During the late 17th and 18th centuries it was customary for the Bishop of Rochester to also be appointed Dean of Westminster: the practice ended in 1802. The diocese covers two London boroughs and West Kent which includes Medway and Maidstone. The bishop's residence is Bishopscourt, Rochester. His Latin episcopal
Maidstone the Hermitage Millennium Amphitheatre. Maidstone is mentioned several times in Ian Fleming's 1955 James Bond novel, "Moonraker". Villain Hugo Drax passes through King Street and Gabriels Hill and later stops at the Thomas Wyatt Hotel. Writer Jack London recounts his visit to Maidstone in his 1903 book "The People of the Abyss". Whilst living in the slums of London in the summer of 1902, he heads to Maidstone in search of hop-picking work up the London Road. He finds lodgings with a "Sea Wife" living in the poor quarter of Maidstone, and persuades her and her husband to let him