Front aspect in Sandgate Road. The building between the hotel and the church clock tower is the Christ Church Parsonage, most recently known as The Executive Club. .
History
The Westcliff Shades we remember died in 1979 when the landlord Jock (Robert Kitson) moved on after 21 years service and the new owner transformed it into the Happy Frenchman.
The Shades began life as part of the West Cliff Hotel in Sandgate Road in 1857 when the Folkestone Chronicle (27 June 1857) records that permission had been granted to Thomas Masters of the Crystal Palace Hotel, Sydenham, to convert four houses known as the Langhorne Gardens into hotel accommodation. The hotel was intended for the well-to-do visitor and it opened on the 8th August 1857 under the management of G Giovanni. The term 'Shades' was sometimes applied to a bar or public house that belonged to a hotel.
Masters sold it in 1860 to The Folkestone West Cliff Hotel Company Limited which had been formed for the purpose of purchasing and enlarging the premises and the sale was largely funded by shares which were available to the public at £1 each.
At the time it was particularly well positioned having extensive sea and country views, and Folkestone enjoyed a long Season commencing in the Spring and lasting until late Autumn and there was evidence that large numbers of people were being turned away for want of first class hotel accommodation. Part of the plans included extending the premises to include at least 100 apartments, plus suitable coffee, billiard and smoking rooms and a capacious Salle à Manger. It is noted that the hotel had a grand saloon for balls and other entertainments and promenade concerts were held on the lawns during the summer months.
The West Cliff Hotel was regarded as the general rendezvous for the elite of the resident population and the nobility and gentry who visited Folkestone during the Season.
Front aspect in Sandgate Road. The building between the hotel and the church
clock tower is the Christ Church Parsonage, most recently known as The Executive
Club. .
 |
This is an extract from an Ordnance Survey map of Folkestone dated 1906. The Christ Church was bombed in the war so only the clock tower remains today. The Shades (circled) is unmarked as a public house on the map but a line links it to the rear of the West Cliff Hotel which started as a conversion of four houses but was extended to this substantial building in 1860. You can see that by this time, the 'extensive sea views' were already marred by buildings opposite the main frontage. |
The hotel was converted for use as a hospital during W.W.I and afterwards, reverted to a hotel but renamed The Majestic Garden Hotel and enjoyed another half century of elegance, rivalled in splendour only by the Metropole which opened in 1897 and the Grand Mansions (later simply The Grand) which opened in 1903. The Majestic closed in 1962 after the death of one of it's Directors. Demolition soon followed and a new building erected in 1970 which housed the Victory Insurance Company and a row of shops named 'Majestic Parade' now stand alongside the old Parsonage.
The first licensee of the West Cliff Shades was Thomas Cobb who left in 1870. He was succeeded by George Wright who was fined £2 plus costs in 1871 for being open during prohibited hours. The Shades then boasted commodious billiard and bagatelle rooms.
Robert Kitson - aka Jock - was licensee from 1957 until 1979 when Michael Burge changed everything......
Transcript from the Folkestone Herald 14 July 1979:
Goodbye Shades - hello unhappy locals
Regulars are angry because of changes to their local pub. Some are so bitter they intend to drink elsewhere because, they say, the old atmosphere has been lost.
The new look Happy Frenchman, formerly the Westcliff Shades in Christchurch Road, Folkestone, reopened on Wednesday after alterations and decorations work costing £48,000.
Three small bars have been knocked into one and new Victorian style furniture has been brought in.
But many old customers are not happy with the only Courage pub in town, and they do not like the new name. One described it a grotesque.
Between sips, Thomas Walker said: 'They have spent a lot of money here but have made it a sort of London pub.
'The old pub needed decorating but they have gone a bit too far. Before it was more of a family place where people met and conversed in a close atmosphere. Now this is lost because it is more spaced out. The room is too big'.
Henry Harrold of Burrow Road, Folkestone, doesn't like the name. 'The French have done their best to wipe out English names so I do not see why it had to be the Happy Frenchman. It should have been Englishman' he said.
Jock, Charlie, Bill and George have been drinking in the pub for many years. Now Charlie and George are to drink elsewhere.
They complained that pool tables, which were popular with the young people, have gone. 'It is no longer an ordinary working man's drinking pub' Charlie said.
New landlord Mike Burge said on Thursday: 'I think most people are very happy with the pub and surprised at the change.
'It is hard to tell who are old regulars on the first night there were many people in the place. Today we have had many people from surrounding offices who were highly delighted at the change.
'As for the pool table it was a company decision not to have one. The ambience of the house would not benefit by having a pool table'.
Colin Bray, Courage (Eastern) Ltd's public relations manager said the name was changed because of Folkestone's close links with France.
The rest, as they say, is history.....
Acknowledgments
Old Folkestone Pubs; Old Inns, Taverns and Hotels of
the Ancient Borough of Folkestone; C H Bishop MA PhD
Folkestone Then and Now, Alan F Taylor
Tales From The Tap Room, Martin Easdown and Eamonn Rooney
Folkestone Library, Heritage Room