Guildhall Hotel/Tavern 1960s

Folkestone Gazette 20-12-1961

Local News

On Monday the Cranbourne Children`s Home, Cheriton, received a cheque for £22, with no stipulation as to how it should be spent on the youngsters’ behalf. Money totalling this amount was dropped into an outsize whisky bottle, at least 2ft. high, standing on a bar at the Guildhall Hotel, Folkestone. Customers were mutely invited to put their odd coppers into the bottle, and not only coppers were received. In fact, the customers, with hearts just as big as the bottle, have already commenced refilling it for Christmas, 1962.

Folkestone Herald 14-11-1964

Local News

Third prize in a Mackeson display competition, sponsored by Messrs. Mackeson and Co., Ltd., of Hythe Brewery, has been awarded to Mrs. M.M. Lewis, of the Guildhall Hotel, Folkestone.

The London area was included in the competition, which took the form of a bar display advertising the properties of the firm`s well-known and very popular stout.

At the Guildhall Hotel, Miss Eileen Lewis, elder daughter of Mrs. Lewis, prepared a very attractive and topical saloon bar panel featuring an airborne bottle of stout travelling through a starlit, cloud-flecked sky. It was shown bypassing the Earth though “The Macky Way” en route for the Moon, for “there is always space for a Macky”.

Freely displayed in the bar were popular nursery rhymes paraphrased to include references to the product being advertised. Dividing its time between the front of the hotel and the lounge bar was a life-sized model of a barmaid, one hand holding a bottle of stout and the other pointing to a churn of milk, one of its ingredients.

Two other top prizes went to houses in Kent, namely: Second, Pearson`s Arms, Whitstable; fourth, Duke of Cumberland, Barham. The prizes will be presented at a reception at Messrs. Whitbread and Co.`s city cellars at their Chiswell Street, London, brewery on Thursday, December 3^rd. A buffet supper will follow.

Folkestone Gazette 16-12-1964

Local News

Fifi, a 12-year-old blind poodle, saved the Guildhall Hotel public house, next to Folke­stone’s Town Hall, from serious damage by fire early yesterday. Fifi smelt burning cable at 4.30 a.m. and yapped until her mistress, Mrs. Maud Lewis, the licensee, went downstairs to see what was wrong. She saw that water from an overflowing sink upstairs had soaked through the floor­boards, short-circuiting the electric current and causing the wire to smoulder. She called Folkestone Fire Brigade, who rushed to Guild­hall Street with three engines. But the fire was put out by turning off the electricity at the mains.  Mrs. Lewis`s daughter, Eileen, said afterwards “It was all my fault. I left a tap running upstairs. I feel most apologetic now. Fifi was wonderful. It would all have gone up in flames if it had not been for her”.

The brewers had to deliver by candle-light when they arrived with supplies after the fire - because the electricity was still cut off.

Folkestone Herald 13-2-1965

Local News

Police statements about the responsibility of publicans towards drunken drivers have brought protests from local landlords. Superintendent Frederick Coatsworth said at Seabrook last week that licensees exerted a tremendous influence on their customers and had a vital role to play in the prevention of offences involving drink, especially where motorists were concerned.

Reaction from Mr. Reg. Gard, landlord of the George Inn in George Lane, Folkestone, was “It just doesn’t make sense. We’re supposed to be mind- readers now, asking customers their age to see if they are over 18. The only thing we can do is to refuse to serve drinks to anyone who has obviously had too much. And, of course, thirsty motorists could always wear a ticket around their necks saying “I’m a driver. Please can I have a drink?””

Mr. Ron Letts, licensee of the Globe on The Bayle, said “It’s ludicrous. Our job is to sell drinks. A fair proportion of my customers are drivers, and in the nine years I have been here I have found they are generally responsible people. On the odd occasion, when you know your customer, it’s O.K. to say “Give me your keys—you’d better take a taxi home”. But how can you say that to a perfect stranger?”

Mr. Alec Wales, of the Lon­don and Paris, near the Har­bour, who is chairman of Folkestone, Hythe and Dis­trict Licensed Victuallers’ Association, put most of the blame on restaurants. “You cannot hold a pub­lican responsible for what customers drink”, he declared. “I don’t allow anyone who is obviously drunk in my house, but when they can get served at a restaurant, what can you do? I certainly don`t think the majority of drunks come from pubs”.

At Folkestone Brewster Sessions on Wednesday Supt. Coats worth reiterated his opinion. “Licensees, particularly those whose premises attract what is known as the motor car trade, have a vital contribution to pay in regard to safety on the roads”, he said. The police are the first to realise in a town such as Folkestone that all persons do not obtain their liquor in licensed premises. But, as responsible citi­zens, licensees can exert a great influence on their cus­tomers by always bearing in mind the effect which alcohol taken in excess might have on drivers of a motor vehicle”.

The last word came from Mrs. Maud Lewis, licensee of the Guildhall Hotel, chairman of the Women’s Auxiliary of the local L.V.A. After Brewster Sessions she told the Herald “We all try to do our stuff. If we think customers have had enough we tell them so. Irrespective of whether they`re driving or not, I`m firm with them on the question of drink”.

Folkestone Herald 8-1-1966

Local News

The Cranbourne Home for Children at Cheriton has benefitted by more than £150 in the last two years through the generosity of the patrons of the Guildhall Hotel, Folkestone.

It is perhaps astonishing to recall that £20 of this admir­able total was the direct re­sult of a burglary. Each year a huge whisky bottle is placed upon the counter of the saloon bar of the Guildhall, and throughout the year customers place loose change in it. Shortly before Christmas, 1963, the hotel was forcibly entered, and the bottle, con­taining an estimated £30, was stolen. Customers who had already subscribed rallied round, and within a few hours the mag­nificent total of £50 was subscribed for the home. In 1964 the total in a new bottle was £25, which was sent to the home. A little later a customer, imposing a condition that he should remain anonymous, wrote a cheque for £50 for the fund. Last Christmas the amount in the bottle was £28 (not £10 as stated in the Herald last week). This was sent to Cranbourne by the proprietress of the Guildhall Hotel, Mrs. M. Lewis.

Thanks for the money were expressed in a letter from Joyce and Basil Frear, who run the home, to Mrs. Lewis. They stated “The money will go to each of our five cot­tages as and when they need it for outings or holidays. In this way everyone gets a fair share”. The letter was written on be­half of the children and staff.