Folkestone double death plunge smash horror tragedy!

Yoinks, yesterday someone chucked themselves off the roof of Bouverie Square in Folkestone, and today the end of our road was sealed off by police because of a "scene". Police were stopping anyone getting close to what had happened, so a) we had to walk home via a circuitous route, and b) no I didn't get any photos / videos / close up viewing details of what had gone on.

Actually wrote that yesterday and then Clare made me think about whether I should write about things like that or not. Of course I should, this is for me to remember where I was and what I was doing and things. Any local events are worth a mention. Perhaps making a horror death map tour of the town on google maps or something would be going to far, but it might be interesting to see local murder points, or the inevitable floral tributes. Look, what's likely to happen first, I write publish something insensitive and gory, or I just get too dull and other people stop reading?

I didn't go out of my way to find out anything about the Bouverie Square (newish town centre shopping complex, Asda, Starbucks, HMV, etc) suicide, I first overheard at work that something had happened "opposite SAGA". Although I was back in work, jetlagged and holiday-hungover, Clare had another day off and was spending part of it walking to Hythe, so right past SAGA HQ. Clare wasn't answering her phone, but she spotted it and called me back, she'd been in to town and heard all about the tragedy there from someone who worked in Asda.

Further details emerged on the way home, I had borrowed a car from work and gave someone else a lift back to Folkestone, he'd been on Facebook and the other gossip networks and heard from people who'd apparently been there, and there were seemingly plenty of witnesses, some of them holding up their camera phones as it all happened (although an apparent eye-witness has checked in to say this is NOT TRUE). So that's why I don't have any firm details, I'm not googling for it in case someone more awful than me has a YouTube clip or something.

Going to be a fairly lazy day today, hopefully I will get round to sorting my holiday photos and trying to remember some details of what we actually did while we were in Key West. Yesterday we had a bit of a day out - it's a bank holiday, so a free day, so let's do something different. We ended up in Ramsgate - it's rubbish, but the harbour side cafes were OK on such a nice day, and it does have a Pizza Express. We tried a few pubs, but could not find ANY local beer, how odd. So we headed back after lunch and jumped off the train at Deal briefly - much nicer there, went to the very cool The Bohemian pub / bar, and happened to be at the station at the same time as The Orient Express. Well, the English leg of it anyway. Lots of people suited and buoted on the platform, very odd.

We came home from Deal quite early just to stay in and catch up on Lost and House and loads of low quality quiz shows on BBC iPlayer.

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History in my day

Another bright and breezy morning, just cool enough to stop me walking down town in just a t-shirt, but warm enough not to stop me walking down town at all. I headed the usual route past the courts and the DSS (all the nice scenic points), to what I’m starting to think is my favourite residential part of town, Millfield / Victoria Grove / Copthal Gardens. There’s nothing special about these roads (apologies if you live there), but they do seem to have enormous potential – the houses are huge, lots of them are tired and sad looking, and not all of it's yet been gentrified. Actually as I’ve been thinking more while writing, the further down the road you head, the nicer it gets, Copthal Gardens does seem quite fab. They’re all [em]just[/em] on the not-town side of town, in a ghetto of Folkestone that's separated from all the action by the smash and grab of the "new road"¹. Past all the houses and the first point of interest is the nursery school that looks like a pub... Yes, it was a pub, it was The Bouverie Arms opened in 1855, was run by the wife’s grandparents in the 1960's, and finally closed in 1977. See, dates and everything, now we’re getting on to the history...

Next I’m down onto Grace Hill, look down the road to the left, there’s legendary Folkestone venue Toft's on your left and the Foord viaduct in the distance. This was completed in 1844 and means there was no need for a big ramp to jump trains over Folkestone to the harbour. This section of track is mostly closed now I think, though the Orient Express does come somewhere down this way once a week, so who knows…

I’ve turned back into town now, passing by Wetherspoons (see my restraint), a converted Baptist church, though I notice it now has a real name all of it’s own; The Samuel Peto. Samuel Morton Peto was a Victorian entrepreneur, who built clubs, theatres, railways, and Nelson's Column of all things, not sure of any connection to Folkestone though…

On into the centre of town, after a book, Ottakers can’t help me, though Waterstones has it... This is very impressive, the becolumned town hall built 1860, from this date on the clock tower, it has a real Back to the Future feel to it. The building also housed a police station, with six jail cells, which I understand are used by Waterstones as some kind of national data store.

Three more stops on the way home, a cup of coffee in Cooks, which I'd not previously have bothered with, but they’ve recently put some effort in. It was a regular bakery type shop until recently I'm sure, but since the threat of a Costa moving to town, they've seriously upped their game. It now has a huge lounge area, decorated in modern coffee shop style, with free internet access and bonus terrace style garden. Really very nice indeed, the original customers seem a bit out of place there now. Then two stops of historical note. One is St Eanswthe's church yard, which I mentioned yesterday. There’s been something religious or other on this site since 630, that's far too early in the morning for me. I was not afeared of nutters today, as I saw a friend there, we call him Terry. Finally, out the other side of the church and past this house where Charles Dickens once lived. As everyone points out, Dickens lived in a lot of houses; most towns have seem to have some blue plaque or other relating to him. This one is (now) called "Copperfield’s", and we do get a mention in that book

Peggotty's answer soon arrived, and was, as usual, full of affectionate devotion. She enclosed the half guinea (I was afraid she must have had a world of trouble to get it out of Mr. Barkis's box), and told me that Miss Betsey lived near Dover, but whether at Dover itself, at Hythe, Sandgate, or Folkestone, she could not say.

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