Thanks And Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Kent Libraries and Archives - Folkestone Library and also to the archive of the Folkestone Herald. For articles from the Folkestone Observer, my thanks go to the Kent Messenger Group. Southeastern Gazette articles are from UKPress Online, and Kentish Gazette articles are from the British Newspaper Archive. See links below.

Paul Skelton`s great site for research on pubs in Kent is also linked

Other sites which may be of interest are the Folkestone and District Local History Society, the Kent History Forum, Christine Warren`s fascinating site, Folkestone Then And Now, and Step Short, where I originally found the photo of the bomb-damaged former Langton`s Brewery, links also below.


Welcome

Welcome to Even More Tales From The Tap Room.

Core dates and information on licensees tenure are taken from Martin Easdown and Eamonn Rooney`s two fine books on the pubs of Folkestone, Tales From The Tap Room and More Tales From The Tap Room - unfortunately now out of print. Dates for the tenure of licensees are taken from the very limited editions called Bastions Of The Bar and More Bastions Of The Bar, which were given free to very early purchasers of the books.

Easiest navigation of the site is by clicking on the PAGE of the pub you are looking for and following the links to the different sub-pages. Using the LABELS is, I`m afraid, not at all user-friendly.

Contrast Note

Whilst the above-mentioned books and supplements represent an enormous amount of research over many years, it is almost inevitable that further research will throw up some differences to the published works. Where these have been found, I have noted them. This is not intended to detract in any way from previous research, but merely to indicate that (possible) new information is available.

Contribute

If you have any anecdotes or photographs of the pubs featured in this Blog and would like to share them, please mail me at: jancpedersen@googlemail.com.

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Friday, 30 October 2015

Updates

30th October, 2015: Folkestone Herald Reports from 1995 Added.

Muswell`s Cafe Bar, Rendezvous Street 1989 - 1993

Licensees

Dennis Deare and Paul Moran 1989 1989
Jeffrey Bolam and Paul Moran 1989 1990
Jeffrey Bolam and Jacqueline Warren 1990 1991
Jeffrey Bolam and Timothy Parry 1991 1992
Richard Samarasinghe and Susan Leonard 1992 1992
Richard Samarasinghe and Ketan Patel 1992 1993 Renamed Scruffy Murphy`s



Folkestone Herald 26-2-1993

Local News

Muswell`s cafe bar at The Lanterns is being sold by Taylor Walker, part of the Allied Lyons company. The new owners will be Simpson`s of Cornhill, part of the Baldwin Leisure Group, a spokesman said. Taylor Walker, which owns or operates more than 700 pubs in London, is selling 27 of its Muswell`s sites around the country. Simpson`s of Cornhill operates a chain of restaurants, which includes Dell` Ugo in Soho. The total sale will be phased in over the next few months to ensure a smooth handover, said a spokesman for Allied Lyons.

Folkestone Herald 6-1-1994

Local News

Muswell`s cafe-bar at The Lanterns in Folkestone town centre is due to re-open soon. The premises, leased from Mr. Pound by Allied Breweries, closed shortly before Christmas. But landlord Peter Pound said this week he has been told a company is interested in re-opening the site, possibly in February. “I believe the plan is to re-open it as a restaurant”, said Mr. Pound yesterday.


Folkestone Herald 14-9-1995

Local News

A new “Irish” pub in the town centre has been given permission to have live music. Scruffy Murphy`s in Rendezvous Street, Folkestone – formerly the cafe-bar Muswell`s – was due to open yesterday (Wednesday) and plans to have regular Irish folk music nights. Council officers were concerned about noise levels, but the management is fitting a noise limiter to cut out amplification when it gets too loud.

 
 
 

Carpenters, The Stade 1987 - 2000

Carpenters, 1999. Credit Martin Easdown

 

 

Licensee

Leslie Carpenter 1987 2000 Also Oddfellows Arms 1984-91. Renamed Mariner (2)



Folkestone Herald 24-1-1992

Local News

Publicans are prepared to lose their jobs and homes rather than sign new leases they say could double their rents. Half the publicans in Fover being offered these contracts and two thirds in Shepway are rebelling, say the local branches of the Licensed Victuallers` Association.

“It`s like signing a suicide pact, and I won`t do it”, says Rick Abbott, who runs the Cricketers in River. He added “I have a wife and three children and we would lose our home, but we would be ruined if I signed”.

Big breweries, with more than 2,000 pubs in the country, are selling pubs or offering 20-year leases because the Monopolies and Mergers Commission is restricting how many they can have.

Alf Bentley, landlord of the Red Lion in Charlton Green, Dover, said “This is as ill-conceived as the poll tax. What use is a 20-year lease to me when I am 60? The breweries are also driving out experienced landlords and replacing them with people who were probably bakers before”.

Leslie Carpenter, of Carpenter`s in The Stade, Folkestone, said “My own rent will only go up by a third, but I couldn`t even manage that. I am prepared to lose my job rather than accept. It`s hard enough to survive with the recession. We`ve just lost more customers through the Sealink redundancies”.

The L.V.A. says the increases would further damage pubs because landlords would have to put up their prices to try to survive. They say the cost of a pint is now pushing £2.

Only last week Barry Musk walked out of the pub where he had been a tenant for four years, the Red Cow, in Foord Road, Folkestone. He now manages a free house, the Imperial, in Black Bull Road. He said “Signing would have meant my rent going up from £12,000 a year to £20,000, which would have ruined me. I was lucky because I found another pub without that kind of expense”.

All four pubs are owned by Whitbread. A spokesman said the company was willing to negotiate with landlords if they could not afford new rents. “The LVA claims that rents will double, but I dispute that. Our own survey shows that overall rents have increased by just 45 percent”, he added. Whitbread says Government legislation has been put it and other brewers in a dilemma. The new Landlord and Tenant Act gives publicans security of tenure, yet the Monopolies Commission says brewers must get rid of pubs.

Folkestone Herald 8-6-1995

Local News

A furious bride-to-be has had to call back all her wedding invitations after a mix-up over the booking for the reception.

Bernice Scanlon went to the Harbour pub, Folkestone, at the end of April to ask about a wedding reception for 70 people in August. She claims the manager booked the date in the diary and told her to return a month later to discuss a price and pay a deposit. But when she went back at the end of May Miss Scanlon  said she was told no booking had been made and there was no way the pub`s restaurant could seat 70. Miss Scanlon, 22, of Cheriton Road, Folkestone, who works as a barmaid at Jolson`s nightclub in Tontine Street, said “When I went the first time I asked if they could do a sit-down meal for 70 people on August 19. The manager put my name and phone number in the diary and said they would definitely be able to do it. He told me to come back for a quote, but said it would be fine and there would be no problem. He said it was going to be refurbished and the place would be beautiful for me. But when I went back I was told there was no way they could seat that many people in the restaurant and they couldn`t do the reception. I thought they were joking, it was such a shock. I have sent out all the invitations and paid for everything. It`s only nine weeks until I get married and I`ve got to start all over again. Surely they could have rung me to let me know. I have complained to the brewery`s head office about it but I haven`t heard anything yet”.

But Helen Waters, manageress of The Harbour, said that although the reception had been entered in the diary no definite booking was made. She said “It was a provisional booking and she was asked to come back in a month to confirm it and sort out a price. I don`t know why she sent out her invitations before it had been confirmed. Andy, the manager, made a note of the date and numbers in the diary. He told her vwe were waiting for a refurbishment and she would need to come back and see us at the end of May. We haven`t got 70 seats in the restaurant, and still won`t have that many after the refurbishment has been done. She got very angry when I told her it hadn`t been booked, but she hadn`t agreed a price and had nothing in writing. I didn`t know we had her phone number, but if I had I would have phoned and told her we couldn`t do it. I did apologise to her when she came in”.

Bernice, whose fiancé Philip Yates, also 22, is serving in the Army at Aldershot, has now booked a reception at The Carpenters, in The Stade, Folkestone, and is sending out new invitations. She said “I`ve got to get all the old invitations back and have them all redone. They cost me £50, but now I`ll buy cheap ones because i can`t afford to spend so much again. I`m very angry indeed”.