Life and Death…of a High Street

A walk through time in Sandgate Road, Folkestone…

The title looks a bit dramatic I guess….but dramatic is a word that describes well the situation with the Great British High Street, especially this high street…as a small independent business owner I can confirm this!

Here in Folkestone ours is named Sandgate Road and it has been the epicentre of the town’s retail trade and commerce for many decades, back into Victorian times in fact.

My family archive doesn’t go that far back! It does however cover the halcyon times for the British shopper through into present…in terms of the present, the future too moreover, let’s be realistic here: Right now it doesn’t look too healthy.

So what’s “inspired” me this time?

I went for my covid jabs at the place once called Bobby & Co. & Debenhams ~ (I refuse to call it “Folca” – that’s just a stupid and pretentious made up name for this building, a name that nobody likes nor relates to.)

Whilst standing with all those other people in the queue we all of us sharing some light hearted banter…it occurred to me that the last time I recall any similar scene was the shot in the above slide show…the rush into the Bobby’s January sale in January 1960, the other on arrival for jab number two on June 1st of 2021.

So that’s what prompted me to do this

This feature being officially the first time I’ve shared photographs from the Richard & Pam & Richard Taylor Family archive on a website for many years.

A whole heap of reasons for that, not least of which was image theft…so please do ensure that you are aware that all the photographs you are about to enjoy are our intellectual and physical property.

They are legally protected under UK and International Copyright Law, click the words there for further information if unsure otherwise treat our work with the respect it deserves to ensure I post more archive photos in future….

Proper photographic prints are available from Nik & Trick Photographic Services on The Old High Street should you ever decide to support the work that is necessary to bring this website and it’s content to you.

Okay thanks for respecting the information in the above paragraph, it’s most important that you do so….We may now continue 🙂

What I thought we’d do here was take a virtual walk…from the junction of Rendezvous Street & Sandgate Road all the way up to the Holy Trinity Church. Photos will appear in as geographical an order as my head permits and not in any chronological order at all.

So we can begin by glancing over our shoulders here to look down Rendezvous Street and see French people off the ferry and en route to Marks & Spencer in September 1961…we’ll peek in the window of D|E|R Televsion rentals here in 1959, the view from the top floor of that building coming soon after.

My father, he was for sure darn good at gaining access to places as we’ll see time and again!

How much or how little it has changed eh?

One thing to note in this gallery of photos of the junction…is how thriving it was, with through traffic permitting the delivery of a whole other selection of passing trade…something in fact that now needs reinstating as a priority part of any effort that is (or IF more like!) ever made to even attempt to save commerce in our town centre.

Here, Queens House had just been built on the site of the much lamented Queens Hotel by Saga, dates are captioned

Crossing over for a look at some views of the new buidling “Queens House” and even a view of Sandgate Road from the demolition site that was the old hotel…Dad again getting access somehow so that he could photograph for comission, Marks & Spencers being extended.

So what’s going on in these other two shots? It’s November 1966 and as Saga move into their new offices a brand new computer is delivered. You can be sure that our mobile phones are many many times more powerful than that, heavy, advanced for it’s time technology was!

Now though, we’ll take a look at the Town Hall and the Council Chamber…and Mayor Aldridge. A bloke who had local business and understood therefore, more about what was going on and the town’s needs…Councillors then taking their duties seriously, happy to deal with the public and any issues they might have, people would be treated with due respect.

Today though, would you even consider approaching a Councillor if you needed help? Do you even actually know who any of them are, since they remain so aloof and so remote and secretive?

Worst still, not only do none of us seem to know a any of them, neither we nor they appear to know what their duties and responsibilities are…not good for the town.

Turning around and heading upwards….

…and we see the first of many little grocery stores, supermarkets before they so meglamanically took over the world, each of these embryonic new ways of shopping trying to fit as much into their small stores as they possibly can.

Starting here with International Stores, a name now long gone but one of the first larger chains that evolved to become to a town centre, what a cuckoo is to a birds nest.

Ann’s Espresso Bar, Home & Colonial, Patrice….

What a busy time this little row of shops had in the ’60s!

Not sure who Ann was but she clearly invested a lot into her “Italian” style trendy cafe….most likely inspired by the Bohemian trend for coffee shops around Soho and Covent Garden.

A bit ahead of it’s time? Maybe but the frothy coffee was the novel and fashionable thing.

We can even have a look inside…some of the equipment, furniture, fitting and accessories now highly sought after by the new Bohemian types for their retro look Bohemian homes!

Do also take a squint and make note of the shops that were situated below…you’re about to see some big changes.

Take a look at the photo below…working back down from Oclee & Son, the one constant throughout, we have entrance to Ann’s Espresso Bar, Bairstows the Confectioners (soon to be the Tobacco Bowl), Home & Colonial and then Sainsburys….the latter two appearing from here to be almost identical, both still in pre-war configuration.

Ann showed the way, things are about to change…to modernise!

Home & Colonial clearly bought the shop next door, knocking out the adjoining wall and recreating itself as a modern new self service supermarket. You’ll see that sadly, Ann’s gone….we’ll miss he,r but Pat Ward, a lovely lady who has worked hard and set up another of her many successful businesses, this being Patrice Haidressers.

Pat is very fondly remembered, a hairdresser by trade, a skilled business woman by nature, later starting the Elizabethan Grille, Cassidy’s Cavern (now Chambers) and finally Wards Hotel on Earls Avenue….glad to see that one, still bears her name 🙂

We’re going to take a quick breath here whilst we remind you who put all the work, into making it possible for you to see these photographs…

A massive investment in time, £, equipment, heart and soul

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All preparatory work on these photographs has been profesionally carried out over the years by us here at Nik & Trick Photo Services, a small independent business situated in The Old High Street here in Folkestone

Prints of any of these photographs can be purchased from us anytime.

Hopefully that lot will have your appetite well and truly whetted by now….you’ll be beginning to understand and appreciate just how much work has gone into this over, not just the years, the decades.

Grapsing that concept we can move onto the next page….we’ve a long way to go yet!