Harbour Inn 1970s - 1980s

Folkestone Herald 15-5-1971

Local News

When 1,400 continentals visit Folkestone next Thursday the doors of local pubs will be open to them all afternoon. On Tuesday local Magistrates decided in favour of a second application to allow 17 pubs to remain open especially for the visitors. They had vetoed a previous application. The second made by publicans was amended to allow for a half-hour break at 5.30 p.m. before their premises opened for the evening session.

Mr. J. Medlicott, for the publicans, told the Magistrates that the visitors were delegates attending a conference in Bruges. One of its highlights was to be a visit to England. He referred to a letter received by Folkestone Corporation from the British Tourist Authority supporting the publicans` application. The visit – by Dutch, Swiss, Belgians and Germans – was a special occasion, not just a shopping expedition, said Mr. Medlicott. It had been arranged by a Bruges tourist organisation which had particularly asked that pubs should be open in the afternoon.

Police Inspector R. Sanders made no formal objection to the application – but doubted whether the visit was a special occasion.

The Chairman of Folkestone Chamber of Trade, Mr. Alan Stephenson, said later “The cross-Channel visitors` committee of this Chamber is very pleased that this has been seen as a special occasion by the Justices. When one is reminded that this extension is no more than happens in many market towns every week of the year, it seems a fair request, especially as Folkestone’s image abroad could be much influenced by the original decision not to allow the pubs to open”.

The pubs which will stay open are; Jubilee, Ship, Oddfellows, Royal George, London and Paris, True Briton, Harbour Inn, Princess Royal, Clarendon, Brewery Tap, Earl Grey, Prince Albert, George, Globe, East Kent Arms, Guildhall and Shakespeare.

 

Folkestone Herald 4-10-1975

Local News

An almost continuous drinking session on Boxing Day landed 25-year-old Patrick Daley, of Harbour Way, Folkestone, in jail. For he ended the day fighting two policemen who were trying to take him to the police station. He bit one of the officers and punched and kicked at the other, it was alleged.

When he appeared before Canterbury Crown Court on Wednesday, the Recorder, Mr. Thomas Eastham Q.C., told him “We are determined to do what we can to ensure that police officers are not sub­jected to this kind of assault”. Daley was then sentenced to three months’ imprison­ment for each of the assaults, to run concurrent, and a fur­ther three months, consecu­tive, for breach of a two year probation order imposed by Folkestone magistrates for possessing controlled drugs.

Mr. Daniel Robins, prosecu­ting, had told the court that Police Constables Tingley and Venner were called to the Harbour Inn in Folkestone on Boxing Day last year be­cause of trouble there. “The trouble was caused by the defendant who was drunk and the officers attempted to arrest him”, he said “He was violent in resist­ing arrest and threw punches and kicked at P.C. Tingley and also bit P.C. Venner. Eventually, after a struggle he was placed in the back of the police car where he continued to fight. At the police station he was still violent and further struggling took place”. When he had calmed down later in the evening, Daley apologised for his behaviour. He told the officers “All I can say to you two guys is I am sorry”.

Mr. Ekled Tabachnik, de­fending, said Daley was liv­ing as a squatter with a young married woman and her child. “It was Boxing Day and he had been celebrating rather too well with his family. He was very drunk indeed”, he said. Although Daley had pleaded Guilty to both assaults, he did not accept that he had bitten one of the officers, said Mr. Tabachnik. He had not set out to assault the policeman, but had hit and kicked out and in the process committed the offences. Fortunately, he said, no serious injuries had resulted.

Photo from Folkestone Herald 18-2-1978 Shows Harbour Inn 7-3-1943

 

South Kent Gazette 2-9-1981

Local News

Plans to knock together two pubs in a £100,000 facelift have been approved by Shepway District Council. Brewers Whitbread want to turn the True Briton and Harbour pubs in Folkestone into one, with a small bar and restaurant upstairs. Downstairs there will be a large open bar in fisherman style serving locally caught seafood. The scheme`s designers have also got a pat on the back from Shepway’s design architect. Both pubs are of different ages, architectural styles and proportions. To combine the facades well was a “consider­able problem” but has been achieved with some success. Building work on the pubs is expected to begin shortly and Whitbread hopes to have the new single pub open in December.

Folkestone Herald 12-2-1982

Local News

Work of joining neighbouring pubs together in a £120,000 conversion to produce a building in keeping with the old harbour area of Folkestone has almost been completed. The Harbour Crab and Oyster House, formerly the Harbour Hotel and True Briton, in Harbour Street, reopens to the public next Friday, February 19.

Old customers may recognise the exterior, now clad in dark weatherboarding, but inside the design theme has captured the interior of a harbour warehouse and ships` chandlers at the turn of the 19^th century.

Roy Pepperrell, Whitbread Fremlins design manager, who planned the alterations, said “The idea was to provide something to match the area, and it seems to have come through well. Folkestone`s planners have congratulated us on the design and the Chamber of Commerce has expressed its appreciation of a development sympathetic to the old harbour area, which they feel has increased tourist potential”.

Bar customers will be able to purchase seafood snacks, and in the Fish Basket Grill, 54 customers can be seated for cooked fish meals with seafood salads and steak dishes. Fish will be bought daily from local catches, and lobsters crabs and oysters will be on the menu, with draught ale from handpumps and popular wines.

Folkestone Herald 26-2-1982

Local News

A Trumpet fanfare heralded the opening of a new pub restaurant at Folkestone Harbour on Friday. Colour Sergeant Jon Yates and Corporal Jan Zawada, of the Royal School of Music at Deal, provided the musical welcome for the first customers. Brewers Whitbread Fremlins have spent £120,000 converting two pubs, the True Briton and the Harbour Inn, into the Harbour Crab and Oyster House. Builders and staff had worked until late into the previous night putting the finishing touches to the revamped building. Top brewery officials, including managing director John Kidson, local dignitaries and business people attended a special opening lunch.

Welcoming the guests retail trade director Alan Wyman said “As you are probably all aware this particular part of Folkestone, which has got a number of attractive features, has been somewhat neglected in the past. My company felt that, in view of the standard of ameni­ties in the rest of the town, it was about time somebody started to do something in the harbour.” Mr. Wyman said he hoped the venture has helped even if only in a small way, to alleviate the local unemployment situation. Harbourmaster Jim Ewing took part in the opening cere­mony by unfurling naval signal flags representing the word harbour.

The new pub and restaurant, which specialises in seafood, is employing 21 staff, 17 of whom have fulltime jobs. Both managers Mike and Lynda Daniells are from Folke­stone and previously managed the Royal Oak at Newingreen. It is possible that if the place, the third of its type to be opened in Kent, is a big success, more staff will be taken on.

Folkestone Herald 15-7-1988

Local News

A party of blind visitors were thrown out of a seafront pub on their first evening in town – because they had their guide dogs with them. Even before they reached a table at the Harbour public house, the group of five blind people and two sighted guides were told “You can`t come in. We don`t have dogs in here”. Shocked, one of the party, in Folkestone for the Royal Commonwealth Blind Bowls Tournament, told the landlord they were guide dogs, but only to be scolded “Not those either”. Disillusioned and upset, the group had to leave.

Visually handicapped Geoff Rawlingson, secretary of the England National Association of Visually Handicapped Bowlers, and his totally blind wife, Pauline, were among those banned from the pub. He said “It was absolutely disgusting. Their attitude was totally wrong. We`re not second class citizens, so why should we be treated like this? I have been all over the world, and this has never happened before. It is not our fault we’re blind”.

The Rawlingsons had wandered from their hotel, the Burstin, to the local pub with friends including Alan Dyte, a blind charity worker and BBC broadcaster, and John Thomas, chairman and secretary of the Bristol Blind Bowls Club. All were on their first ever visit to Folkestone for the bowls tournament be­ing held at Cheriton, and wanted to celebrate with a drink out. For two friends, laboradors Quaker and Illis were their eyes, but it was these two dogs Harbour landlord Robert Col­lins objected to.

Mr. Collins said: “It was a Saturday evening. The pub was extremely busy and full of youngsters. It was not fair on the dogs. We do not accept dogs on food premises, not even guide dogs”.

Now, after being contacted by the Herald, management at the pub’s Whit­bread brewery have apologised. Area manager David Hespe said “Quite clearly the manager was wrong. He says he was under the impression that any dog - even guide dogs - were banned from the pub. He assumed wrong. This would never, ever be our policy”. The pub manager would be reprimanded and advised over the mistake. On behalf of Whitbread, Mr Hespe has now offered the party of seven a meal at their nearby pub, The Valiant Sailor. 

Folkestone Herald 22-7-1988

Local News

A civic leader has apologised on behalf of the town for an amazing blunder which led to a party of blind bowling champions being ousted from a Folkestone pub. In the embarrassing mess-up, the man­ager of Whitbread’s Harbour pub in Harbour Street ordered the group at of the bar because they had two guide dogs with them.

It led to an almighty stir within the brewery and among officials at last week’s Royal Commonwealth Blind Bowls Tournament. But after reading of the incident in the Herald, Shepway District Council chair­man Anthony Deighton offered the town’s apologies to bowlers at their fare­well dance on Friday. And he went even further on Tuesday this week to attack the manager of the pub for what he described as a “stupid mistake”. He said “It seems ridiculous to think this happened while at the same time there is a television advert which shows a dog in a pub drinking beer. The council wants people to come back again, and obviously if they have a bad time here, they won’t bother. On Friday I apologised to the indi­viduals concerned because it is the sort of thing that can mar a holiday. Luckily, they just shrugged it off”.

The brewers, Whitbread, offered the party a free meal at their nearby pub, The Valiant Sailor, as part of their apologies. Area Manager David Hespe said last week “The manager was wrong. Banning guide dogs would never, ever be our policy”.