Bouverie Hotel 1980s

Folkestone Herald 17-9-1982

Local News

Landlord Bob Lord put the towels over the beer pumps at Folkestone`s Bouverie Hotel for the last time on Monday. Ill health has forced Mr. Lord to leave the pub after 36 years and retire with his wife Joan to a new home in Seabrook.

On Saturday friends and regulars gathered at the pub, which was run by Mr. Lord`s father before him, to bid the popular couple farewell. The Bouverie Hotel is being taken over by a private hotel company from Essex.

The licensing trade runs in Mr. Lord`s family. He was born in a pub at Green St. Green in 1921, where his father Percy was landlord. Mr. Lord went to the Morehall and Harvey Grammar Schools, and for a brief period went into farming. He met his wife in the early days of World War II while working at Dover Casualty Hospital. The couple took over the hotel in 1946, but Mr. Lord remembers the days when a circus elephant used to pop in for a pint, and Sir Alec Rose, the round-the-world yachtsman, was a regular visitor while in the market garden business in Thanet.

Photo from Folkestone Herald

South Kent Gazette 15-6-1983

Local News

Cockney comedian Arthur Mullard helped to open the new-look Bouverie Hotel in Folkestone. He was the star attraction to launch a new era at the hotel, which includes selling real ale brewed in Kent.

The hotel, in Shellons Street, Middelburg Square, has been taken over by partners Mr. David Bumpstead and Mr. Ian Hilton. It will be managed by Mr. Tom Riley. They already have a nightclub in Hornchurch, Essex, a hotel in Brentwood, Essex, and a hotel on the pier at Gravesend which brews its own beer. And that’s where the beer at the Bouverie Hotel comes from. Known as Hilton real ale, the beer has some amazing names, including Clipper, Gravedigger, Buccaneer and Lifebuoy.

Photo from South Kent Gazette

 

Folkestone Herald 20-6-1986

Local News

A secretary and several company managers landed in the swim last week when they decided to cele­brate their firm’s bi-centenary in style.

But it was not so much a dip in the ocean they took, more a twenty-nine and half mile dive. For a team of six proudly heralded the name of their com­pany, Lovell Construction and Property Development of Gerrards Cross, Buckingham­shire, and waded into the icy blue Channel off Dover in a brave attempt to swim to France.

Unfortunately, just four miles off Cap Griz-Nez in France, the freezing water got the better of the relay team, who were taking it in one hour swimming stints, and had to be pulled in. But their disappointment was short-lived for they managed to warm the cockles of the hearts of residents at the Bouverie Hotel, Middleburg Square, Folkestone. A party was thrown to boost funds by hotel managers Bill and Heather McFarlane and they went home with £78 to add to their collection for the Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hos­pital.

A spokesman for Y. J. Lovell said “We were very impressed with the hospitality and generosi­ty we received from the Bouverie Hotel. Their donations helped towards our target of £15,000 for our charity and we have every confidence that we’ll beat it”.