Tickets sold out weeks in advance for Armed Forces Day, a tribute not just to an imaginative new national celebration but also to the triumphant rebirth of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, Kent. The historic Georgian dockyard now tells a thrilling and absorbing story, with a splendid array of dockyard buildings brought to life — mast houses, sail lofts, joiners’shops, smithery, covered boat building slips and immense warehouses.

Impressive warships float in two of the dry docks: the gunboat HMS Gannet of 1878, masted so it could continue under sail when coal was running out, and HMS Cavalier, the only survivor of 96 emergency destroyers built for the Navy during the Second World War. The third dry dock, still dry, houses the fearsome black bulk of the Cold War submarine Ocelot, launched from Chatham in 1962.

The attractions of the dockyard today were almost unimaginable when, in 1981, as the Cold War wound down, the Defence Minister, John Nott, announced the closure of the dockyard. No fewer than 50 listed buildings and structures needed repair and new roles, including the gargantuan, 1,135ft-long ropery. Many of these buildings were also designated as ancient monuments with even stricter controls over interiors and machinery.

Worse, the opposite bank of the River Medway was being built up, with ugly sheds blocking views of Rochester Castle and Cathedral, and 600 acres of Victorian dockyard next to the Georgian enclave were to be razed for new development.

Basil Greenhill, director of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, led the campaign to remind the Government of Chatham’s importance. Chatham had built more than 500 ships for the Navy over more than 400 years, helping to prepare the fleet for the Spanish Armada. James I, though “he loved stags more than ships”, according to the French Ambassador, had built the first dry dock.

Chatham was also the scene of one of Britain’s worst naval reverses. Just as the country was celebrating the capture of New York, the Dutch sank some of the Navy’s finest ships in a daring raid up the Medway in 1667. By then the river was silting up, and a century later the Earl of Sandwich ordained that Chatham “should be kept singly to its proper use as a Building Yard”.

Chatham built Formidable, Rodney’s flagship at the Battle of the Saintes (1782), Queen Caroline, “Black Dick” Howe’s flagship at the Battle of the Glorious First of June (1794) and Nelson’s Victory. It also built 57 submarines. In 1984 the new Dockyard Trust was given £11 million, splendid but still inadequate. The trustees spoke of creating a living museum, a mixed-use community with people living in the Georgian officers’ houses and small businesses housed in dockyard buildings.

Bill Ferrers, who runs the Dockyard Trust, says: “We now have 140 business tenants bringing in £1.3 million in rents as well as 112 houses.” The gaunt new housing remains the most controversial element, though it echoes the severity of the dockyard architecture.

The 1990 property recession hit the fledgeling trust badly and the 12 magnificent houses in the early Georgian Officers’ Terrace were sold on at disappointing prices. Today, however, they remain as single residences protected by covenants, with their original walled gardens. The Captain’s House, handsomely restored, is for sale at £895,000.

In 1997 the Government gave the trust a further £17 million, and it was able to reroof the vast covered slips and find uses for them. Sparkling in the sun beside the white-painted mast houses, they have regained full naval smartness. The earliest, No 3, houses historic vehicles of the Royal Engineers, including a Chieftain tank adapted for clearing mines, an amphibious rig used for bridge building and the red railway carriage used by Lord Kitchener in the Sudan. Visitors ascend to the Edwardian mezzanine floor to admire a roof like an upturned boat hull with apsidal end and virtuoso display of flying ribs — a naval echo of Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster Abbey.

No 4 Slip houses 15 handsome historic lifeboats, telling the heroic story of Britain’s volunteer lifeboat service. No 7 Slip, the largest, now houses Turks Boatyard, which supplies historic boats for films. This is a traditional repair shop where Thames launches are brought in through the water gate.

The former Carpenters’ Shops now house a series of craft workshops. The most recent conversion is the 1790 Joiners’ Shop, repaired with £2.25 million grants as an incubator for small businesses. Original cast-iron columns have been retained and a modern internal structure provides small units that start at £48 per week.

The vast Edwardian Naval Barracks has been taken over as a campus by three universities, Kent, Canterbury and Greenwich. Within the dockyard the clock-tower building is also used by the University of Kent.

The next big question is the future of the Anchor Wharf storehouses along the Medway, the largest warehouses built for the Royal Navy. The ground floor now tells story of the dockyard, with a superb Hollywood model of Victory made for the 1941 film That Hamilton Woman starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Knowledgeable volunteers from the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society brim with stories about exhibits.

The upper floors, empty and undivided, provide an astonishing perspective through a forest of wooden columns and beams. Chatham’s trustees have held off from obvious solution of creating apartments — which would have fine views along the river but involve subdivision. Now the growing university presence suggests workspace for students.

The climax of a tour is a visit to the Georgian Ropery, still in operation making manila ropes, kept going by the film industry, which has a penchant for the real thing.

Today on most afternoons between 2pm and 4pm you can stand in the Ropewalk and watch the yarns and strands being twisted together to form ropes which run the length of the 1,135ft interior. Future master ropemakers please apply.