Friday, 19 June 2015
Jubilee Inn 1980s
South Kent Gazette
18-3-1981
Local News
Furious pub landlords say shock rises of up to 8p. on a
pint of beer could put them out of business. Tenants of Whitbread Fremlin pubs
in Shepway are bitter and incensed at the massive increase imposed by the
brewery.
The rise, brought in on Monday, could put many of the
landlords in the area out of the business or force them to go
out to work while their wives manage the pub. This was the message from landlord
Vic Batten, of the Jubilee Inn, Folkestone, who spoke on behalf of 40 tenants
in the area on Monday. “We deplore the breweries increase”, Mr Batten said. “It
means the Whitbread tenants are going to have a “very, very lean time””. On top
of the four pence excise duty which came out of the Chancellor’s Budget, the
brewery has placed an extra few pence on prices because of “inflationary costs
of raw materials and delivery services”, a brewery spokesman claimed. To the
customer this means between 56p and 58p for a pint of bitter, with lager
costing 68p for the usual types and 74p for the Stella Artois brand. Guinness
will also be over the 70p mark. “This is the highest increase the trade has
ever been faced with”, Mr. Batten said. “We are having a lean enough time with
the recession. This is obviously going to aggravate things even more. The pubs
are already in competition with licensed clubs in the area. It could result in
some of the licensees having to get out of the trade or going out to work while
their wives run the pub”.
The local tenants held a special
meeting at the Golden Arrow public house in Golden Valley on Sunday to discuss
the situation. “But there is nothing we can do; we are tied tenants, contracted
to get supplies from Whitbread”, said Mr. Batten. “We have had reactions from
free-trade licensees. They are very incensed at Whitbread and talking about
organising some sort of a boycott”.
Mr. Batten, a landlord for 13 years,
said the increase adds up to a 66 percent rise on beer in the last three years
and 50 percent up in spirits. His prices were put up in December and only two
weeks ago the cost of bottled beer and spirits were increased.
However, the brewery has written to
tenants stating that after this increase prices will remain the same for 12
months. A spokesman for Whitbread Fremlin said this will be the case providing
there is not a mini-budget or any unforeseen problem in that time.
Folkestone Herald
24-2-1984
Local News
Non, nein, or however you want to put it, Shepway
drinkers have given the thumbs-down to Common Market tinkering with the price
of a pint. Brussels bureaucrats have said that Britain discriminates against
wine in favour of beer and have asked for a harmonisation of prices. But with
one eye on the budget, drinkers and licensees alike suspect that is 1984
doublespeak for a thumping increase in the price of a pint.
First into the counter-attack against whatever Whitehall
and Brussels have in mind is Folkestone and District Licensed Victuallers`
Association, which says the price of a pint is already too high, and if any
adjustment is to be made, wine costs should be cut. “I`ve been here 15 years,
and in that time I have seen the price of a pint of beer double inside five
years and the number of customers fall off” said Vic Batten, Chairman of the
association, and innkeeper at the Jubilee on The Stade, Folkestone. “In
January, 1979, mild was 30p a pint, and out two bitters 34p and 38p. A pint of
mild now costs 66p and the bitters 72p and 74p respectively. You can go into
any pub in the area and they will tell you the same thing, and it amounts to
this – the higher the price of a pint, the more the average person is put off
from visiting their local. The ridiculous thing is that in this country we aret
axed more heavily on drink than in any other country in the Common Market with
the exception of the Irish Republic”.
As the lounge bar of the Jubilee cleared at the end of
the lunchtime session Mr. Batten`s grandson, three-and-a-half months old Thomas
came down with his mum to see what was going on. Rapid calculations revealed
that, assuming prices rise on the current scale, Thomas will be tipping back
pints at more than £12 a time – if there are any pubs open by the time he is
20.
One of the last customers to leave was fellow-publican
and ex-journalist, Brian Potter, now licensee at the Clarendon in Tontine
Street, Folkestone. Said Brian between mouthfuls of ale “If nobody says or does
anything then I reckon they`ll get away with pegging wine at the price it is
and harmonising the prices by jacking up the price of a pint. What Vic says is
dead right. The average bloke is beginning to realise the cost of a pint of
beer has already been increased out of all proportion. I mean, have your wages
doubled in the last five years?”
Opinions of the same sort were voiced by Mr. Danny
McNeill, late of Balloch, Scotland, and now not-unacquainted with the bar of
the Globe in Folkestone`s Bayle. “If the people who fixed the prices could
stand in here and listen to what people are saying, their ears would burn”, he
said. “There’s definitely something wrong with the
pricing when you can get a super strong lager in Scotland for less than 70p. It
seems to me that the brewers and the government are pricing themselves out of
a good thing”.
Toby House, Grace Hill ???? - ????
Licensees
No details available
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| Photo from Folkestone Herald 12-2-1977
Folkestone Herald
6-1-1984
Local News
Former disco and bars complex the Toby House
is up for sale at £105,000. The two-storey
building at Grace Hill, Folkestone, has been closed for more than a year and
been on the market for over six months. It used to be
run by Mr. Mike Oliver, of Oliver’s La Clique discotheque, Dover Road,
Folkestone. The disco and its bars is up for sale through Folkestone estate
agent Daniel Smith. This freehold also includes a nearby Victorian house at 13,
Copthall Gardens. Toby`s was once one of only a handful of discotheques for
young people in Folkestone. A season of live gigs for local and national bands
was put on in 1982 and during this period the now chart-topping band Blancmange
played there. Although the disco and house are together in the package for
£105,000, the brewery which owns both is willing to let them go separately.
Daniel Smith says the business had a turnover of £100,000 a year. It is at
present vacant and requires “to be refitted with a new inventory”. A spokesman
said there are several parties interested in the disco building and until a
genuine offer for purchase is made the name of the brewery is being withheld.
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