Owners of a shop starting its 24th year in Chatham town centre say the High Street is almost unrecognisable from when they first started business.

Kerry and June Earl opened the American Comic Shop on July 5, 1993, in the In-Shops complex, which later became the Trafalgar Centre.

They have since moved round the corner to Church Street and their shop has outlasted others thanks to a growing customer base.

Big names such as Woolworths, Marks & Spencer, BHS and Tesco have all shut up shop as have local favourites such as AF Smith and Varley’s Electrical.

Mr and Mrs Earl wanted to open their shop on July 4, American Independence Day, but were not able to as it was a Sunday.

Mrs Earl, 54, from Walderslade, said: “Over the years we’ve seen a lot of established stores close. We think we’ve survived this long, because of our knowledge and friendly service to regular and new customers.

“We value their custom and we try our hardest to meet their needs and still remain an authentic comic book store. We still have most of our original customers from the early days, and still welcome new customers on a weekly basis.”

The shop, which sells comics from the 1940s to the present day, flooded last June but was only closed for half a day while they cleared up.

It has since been redecorated, and the shop front has also been revamped for the anniversary.

But the changes to the High Street are not a bad thing according to the chairman of Chatham Town Centre Forum.

Patricia Matthewman said: “We can’t deny that some stores are closing but we’ve got many that are making a great success of things.

“You’ve only got to look at Coffee Republic which is absolutely booming and Nucleus Arts – there’s a great success story on the High Street. They’ve opened two sites now selling artisan products, foods and gifts.”

She also said the opening of Go Outdoors at the former Tesco site earlier this year showed major investment in the town centre.

Free parking Fridays are returning to Chatham this summer after the success of the scheme last year.

The initiative, organised by Chatham Town Centre Forum in partnership with Medway Council, starts on July 29 and runs every Friday until September 2.

Forum chairman Patricia Matthewman said: “This has come about as a result of residents, retailers and business owners being positive and constructive and asking what can we do to change things and working with the council to do that. It’s just one of many initiatives that we are quite proud of.”

Visitors to Chatham will be able to park for free from 2pm on Fridays at the Brook multistorey car park.