message query for harbour

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.

ICE SKATING ???

Does anyone know whether an ice skating rink is coming to Folkestone harbour this spring just as it did last year?

Thank you :)

RE: Anyone care to leave a message in English?

Ok.. the Orient Express trundled into the Harbour station this afternoon, which was a surprise as I was led to believe the final visit was in November 2007?

On that subject, the penultimate visit(?) of the Golden Arrow steam train will take place this Saturday (5th). Make the most of it!

Folkestone Harbour reef

Just spotted someone looking for Folkestone Harbour reef on this site, and I managed to rescue this info on surfing in Folkestone from the google cache of a deleted www.bbc.co.uk/kent page:

John - die hard local
Folkestone harbour beach has been going off for ages; surfers just don�t know how good it�s been! So you all need to get down here as soon as magic seaweed shows the low pressure in the North Sea.
callum, hythe, kent

hi- ive been wanting to start surfing for some time now and i dont know where to start, also im not in a possession for traverling, i hear there is a spot called folkestone harbour reef which is ideal for the location i am in, does anyone know if it is any good for berginners as i have neaver surfed in my life? and lastley does anyone know of any surf shops in the folkestone area? yours dudely callum

daniel sibert
you should get ya cam men down folkestone sands on tuesday after noon its kickin off

Crap Town!!

Folkestone's so depressingly shit, kids are even coming from Bridgend to hang themselves.

RE: Oof, shooting in Cheriton!

That was 2 years ago. I don't think you got tazered. I smell BULLSHIT BOB.

RE: the three mackeral

Looks like Julie has given up on the place like all the other tenants. Price recently reduced to �47k.

RE: Do you really think DeHaan has made any money on this yet?

They've reduced the price now to �47k.Must be desperate.

www.porterssurveyors.co.uk/property_details.php?ID=PA392

ice skating folkestone harbour

What days are ice skating on and whst times?
email back to sammaple@hotmail.co.uk

thanks for that Julie

Whole lot of interesting detail there, though you do sound a bit bitter

Does Folkestone really need any more apartments? I know it has lots of pubs and they're all empty, but that's because there are almost none that are worth going to.

I heard somewhere, perhaps on the councillor's own blog that he lived there, and that he'd lived there as a child (if I'm thinking of the right person) but I didn't know he was the landlord / tenant. Also, I didn't know that Euphoria was meant to be a gay bar, I usually avoid those pre-club type places. Haven't been in there at all since it's been the Three Mackeral I don't think, though I think we got as far as the front door in each of its last three or four incarnations and just thought "no thanks" and gone somewhere else.

We had a drink outside there once in the daytime when it was Euphoria, when the sun is shining it's a nice spot, but the last time I really liked it was when it was called The Front, though I don't think that survived long either did it?

Which previous landlord are you then? Or are you the landlord of a neighbouring rival tavern? They're all pretty ropey down there.

burstin folkestone darts event

That sounds good, someone's landed here searching for burstin folkestone darts event. No idea what it is yet, it'd be great if it was some top players. The Burstin is the monstrous hotel down by the harbour, it's a strange little community all of its own, I've been in there once or twice and it's HEAVING with people that you just don't see around the town. Oddly, they seem like tourists, but what sort of tourists does a town like Folkestone get these days? People off on coach trips to the continent maybe, or people who live in Blackpool and come here for a bit of glamour.

So was anyone else reading this also at Led Zeppelin the other night?

I can't find "The Last Golden Arrow"

Can you tell me the link where you saw this?

UPDATE:

NEW! Saturday 19th January 2008 - 'THE GOLDEN ARROW' to Folkestone and Canterbury
Departing from: Coventry (06.40/23.30) Leamington Spa (07.20/23.10) Banbury (07.45/22.50) Bicester North (08.05/22.35) Haddenham & Thame (08.20/22.25) Princes Risborough (08.30/22.15) High Wycombe (08.45/22.00) Ealing Broadway (09.20/21.15)
This is a train with a real �wow� factor that any steam enthusiast would not want to miss as we take a circular tour of over 200 miles hauled by Southern Railway Battle of Britain Pacific 34067 �Tangmere� complete with the Golden Arrow flags & regalia. Features include an enchanting winter journey through the picturesque garden of England and along the White Cliffs of Dover � with a stopover of around two hours to discover medieval Canterbury, the highlight of this tour being the 1 in 30 steam hauled climb up the soon to be closed branch from Folkestone Harbour. During the time in Folkestone we have arranged an additional photographic run up the fearsome incline enabling passengers the rare opportunity to view this historic event from the harbour side.
click for full details and secure online booking >>>

www.kingfisherrailtours.co.uk/

sounds like the map is wrong

Possibly I don't have the right location in for "rye harbour" in the database, sounds likely, I will investigate.

Rye Harbour

Do you really mean "Folkestone Harbour" the map directs you that way???As I would like to see the "Last Golden Arrow" I do hope you mean 'my town'!!

Regards

Gerry

I'm with you, that market is trash!

Maybe it'll get cleaned up when the new centre opens? Or maybe you need stuff like this for a contrast, to make the other stuff look good. Most street markets are pretty scummy anyway, the Folkestone one probably isn't much worse than average, it's just that the average street market is a bad thing.

The crapness of this market has infected the harbour market too, that seemed like it would be quite nice when it first opened but there are a few stores down there too...

Splendid weekended

Great weekend, went to visit the folks and we got down in plenty of time to go to Portsmouth Dockyard and see the Mary Rose and the Victory. The Mary Rose was more interesting than I thought, it's not just a big lump of driftwood, but the Victory was less impressive than I remember. One change that I remember from childhood visits, the "Nelson fell here" plaque has been countersunk (at some point in the last twenty or thirty years) so no longer can people joke "I'm not surprised I nearly tripped over it myself". We have tickets for other aspects of the dockyard, including a boat trip around the harbour that I hope we'll get to use on another visit.

Great night out with my Mum and Dad, some FINE pints of Ringwood brewery's "Huffkin" in the Lloyds bar in Port Solent and a curry too.

Sunday got some paperwork from Dad, including the wills of my great great grandfather and my great great great grandfather, which I'm sure will be interesting when I can deciper the copperplate writing. We have some mroe family tree info from someone who it turns out is distantly related, which takes us back more generations than we knew before.

The journey home came around all too quickly, and it was dark, and it was raining, and there was no visibility, and it took us four hours to drive home.

Got an interesting email from someone who'd found this I lost my girlfriend to a rock star post on Folkestone Gerald saying "I was that girlfriend". Neither poster is me, or known to me, but maybe these people will get back in touch and form a beautiful new relationship. Or, more likely, each are married now to other people and two relationships will be crashed against the rocks of internet flirtations. I will keep you informed.

Tontine Street war memorial (for Tim Bryan)

heard that there is a memorial site in tontine street that used to be a pub, got bombed in wwII?? Apparently there's a plaque on this site. Is it the little triangle at the end where the road splits?? (heading uphill from the amusements, etc.)[/quote]

At long last, a response to your post, though I doubt you'll be back to check now, sorry for the delay... I went down to the market at Folkestone Harbour today and had a look for the plaque:

This shelter was erected in a shopping and residential area destroyed by bombing and shelling during the second world war 1939-45. The cost was met by a gift from the lord mayor of London's air raid distress fund and from sums given during the war by the peoople of New Zealand and local residents”"

Rotunda / seafront masterplan starting to move ahead

Billionaire Roger De Haan has revealed he is in negotiation with a number of companies which will become partners in the venture to realise his popular Masterplan vision.

The former Saga boss will redevelop the redundant site to provide benefits including 1,000 homes, recreational facilities, civic building, university campus and shops.

Mr De Haan told a business construction magazine: "The seafront and harbour development presents an extraordinary opportunity to provide Folkestone with a superb new waterfront development.

A little more here in the Herald. Sounds like it's going to be five years or more until it's finished though, bah.

Try and get a local paper

There's very little info online actually, www.lcrhq.co.uk might have info on the high speed rail link, AFAIK still not due until the end of 2009, and that's not allowing for any new postponements. I made the move from London with all this in mind though.

The squabbles between Roger DeHaan and Jimmy Godden are all over now I think, they did a big property trade off and Mr DeHaan owns all the seafront land he needs to continue with the master plan. I think www.folkestoneharbour.com will have more info on this.

There really are a lot of flats in Folkestone at the moment, so many that it's stopping the prices rising I think, but I'm not property expert! I have bought one flat, to live in, and seen a rise of somewhere between 20 and 40% in the past three years. The two years before I bought, values in our block rose 100% in two years. I'm keeping this flat after I buy my next place as I think Folkestone will be great int he long term, especially if the university plans all come off.

A place with a sea view sounds a good bet, plenty of those around here, though a garage or parking space will be of value too.

Please report back with anything you discover! It's not a terribly lively forum, but I'll help out with whatever info I can.

Shark attack in Folkestone!

details here in the Sun. Doesn't the harbour and the Burstin look quite nice in that picture?

Beer: not bad

My homebrew was not bad at all, not 100% clear, but brown and smelled and tasted of beer, so can't complain. Was a little bit malty for my taste, but I can fis that when I start on a proper recipe and really mess things up.

All in all had a very nice weekend, we went to Escondido for lunch, and did afternoon drinking in The Ship, and browsing of antique shops and then off for a full evening of boozing it up. We took in The Harbour, and The Burstin just to see what it was like - madly busy, with visiting coach parties from around the country. The place was actually packed out, and had the odd atmosphere of a holiday camp. then we finished off at The Ship, the other one, in the harbour.
I think I finally had some success with DVD burning, which I've been struggling with for ages to get it working without actually having to buy any software. I have a load of things as AVIs that are fine for me (my DVD player plays data discs), but I want other people to be able to watch on a regular DVD player. I think I've finally got it sorted with a combo of bits of software, all of which met my requirements of being free, and legit, and not a trial only version or any crippleware... I'm now using something called Super to convert AVI to VOB, then /> DVD Styler to make menus and save as an ISO, and then cd burner x pro to burn the iso to a disk.

Can't find the proper link to Super right now, but it is French and their site is rubbish. I think I can get away with converting AVI to MPEG using any other software now I come to think of it, I just need a bit more experimenting.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to get things sorted though, what does everyone else use? I mean to make proper DVD's with menus and things.

Shepway District Council might be able to help you

see here, or try www.creativefoundation.org.uk or www.folkestoneharbour.com.

Good luck, post again when you find out.

Redevelopement

Can you give me the information on the contractor/swho will be developing the Harbour/Rotunda area Thank You.

Rabbits and finches

Walk home from work today wasn't so dark, not pitch black anyway, not sure if that's the position of the moon or something, or that it's really getting lighter. We went to the office at the weekend, so I could show Clare where it was, and we saw a rabbit, or maybe a hare, as well as the usual sheep. This morning I saw a flock of brightly coloured finches too. Proper countryside, lovely.

Weekend was a full round of pubbing and things, down The Harbour on Saturday night, good to see it getting busier again, and Chambers quiz on Sunday. A rare night out indeed! Thought we might have done OK in the quiz, and we did come third out of lots and lots, but we were still twelve points or so behind the winner.

I'm being amused every day at the moment by a huge poster for "Carling 2%" outside Folkestone train station, with the slogan "the swift one at lunch pint". It reminds me (every time) of Al Murray being a guest on the morning show on XFM, so back when I lived in London, in New Cross I think. Carling sponsor absolutely everything, and they were sponsoring something on the show, maybe giving out tents in time for Reading festival or something. Al Murray, in character said "Carling, that's a drinking and driving lager", and was hurriedly hushed up by the host. Well it amuses me. We used to have to pussyfoot around them in a previous job of mine too.

Speaking of weak beer though, I heard a rumour that Old Speckled Hen had been enweakened by the brewery. It always was a bit of a headbanger, but this might explain why I wasn't very drunk on Saturday, despite drinking 'Hen in The Ship. I was less drunk than my two companions, who insisted on a kebab on the way home anyway, disgraceful...

Magic darts

Turned on the final of the Lakeside World Championship last night while we were having tea (Sunday, so chilli), and nearly turned it right off again as it looked like a bit of an embarrassing white washing, Martin Adams bein six sets to nill up against Phil Nixon. What a game though, glad we stayed watching. Good that Adams won after so long missing out ont he top title, but an amazing comeback to six all by Nixon. Now he's a contender, he'll have to get himself a better nickname than just "Nixy"...

The darts, and the following Three Musketeers that we also watched topped off a fairly fullsome weekend. Friday I was working again, and followed that with a rare night out in Gordon's with my Ushers, much heated debate did pass. I was not so diverted as to miss my train home though, made the nine, which was good as we had an early morning planned for the next day.

For christmas, we mostly asked for vouchers so we could buy some more furniture from John Lewis. We've needed a TV stand for a while, been making do with an old kitchen cupboard since we moved in, which is nearly three years now. We considered mounting the TV on the wall for ages, but it seems a bit too much disruption, so we thought we'd get the TV table to match our other furniture. Instead of heading to our nearest John Lewis at Bluewater, it's just as quick to go into London, so we did that and made a day of it.

Despite having settled on the TV cabinet about a year ago, within a few minutes of being in the shop we'd completely changed our minds, decided to spend twice as much money and buy this:

Seeing it on it's own, in stark contrast to the sleek lines of this web page (*ahem*), it's a bit farmhouse kitchen really, but in the flesh it looks good, and feels nice, and the storage will be handier, and the telly will go nicely on top of it. It will be a shame to have to brutally cut a whole in the back so as to stuff it with DVD players and the like, but HEY, it will nice nice to have everything tidied away... Eight to ten weeks for delivery unfortunately, but then I'll be BACK with real pictures, changing history, and denying we ever lived like this.

As well as the shopping, we headed back up to Stokey, to have lunch at our old favourite Il Bacio with Emma, and we also popped in our old local The Defoe and round to Emma's smashing new flat in a converted church.

It made a nice change to go into London at the weekend, and not have to race around going to work etc, we might do it again soon.

Saturday night we went down to the Harbour (the part of Folkestone) and went in The Harbour (the pub) and The Ship, both had really good live music on.

Rest of Sunday; shopping, visiting, housework, watching telly, and you're back at the start of this post.

Malice Box Quest is also actually live today, you can answer questions and start building up points towards the prize winning end game...

It's more and more like Miami Vice round here every day

Hmm, not really, but this morning a body was found on the beach at Folkestone. Grim, wonder if it's linked to this man, missing after being quizzed about this 53 million pound robbery.

Had a lovely day in Canterbury today, despite the rain, was nice to be able to wonder around town not being on a particular quest to find presents for anyone, or clothes for Clare. We bought a lamp and a buddha, and had a splendid lunch in Wagamamas.

Off for a night out down the harbour now.

It's a deal

Been too busy with work, so missed if this was in the Herald or not, but according to ickent Mr DeHann and Mr Godden have done a deal for the seafront land! This is great! I think!

ROGER De Haan and Jimmy Godden have done a deal for the seafront at Folkestone.

The two businessmen have reached a compromise agreement which virtually guarantees a world- class development in the harbour area.

Contracts have been exchanged and Trent Development, which had outline planning permission for the Rotunda site, pulled out completely last week.

Although all parties are still bound by a confidentiality clause and are unable to comment, we understand Mr Godden accepted an offer involving cash plus property acquisition. It is understood that Mr Godden has also released properties which will form part of the iconic masterplan dream created by the architect Norman Foster.

A joint statement confirming the deal was due this week.

Seen some nasty sniping against Roger De Haan on sites like folkestone-magazine.net just recently, not sure what that's all about. Now it's all definitely going ahead, I guess this does make De Haan the establishment, and it is your every day blogger's responsibility to question him...

I wonder what land Godden has now? I hope it's not between our flat and the sea!

Number one result for "Habitat Radius"

Was just trying to find the furniture we bought at the weekend, and all the top results are me, how strange. It's down to Habitat's website being quite bad, the whole flash interface makes it hard to index, so my pages are coming up top. ANYWAY, here's that dressing table we got off ebay:

Doesn't really look much there, but we're really pleased with it. We got about a third off buying it second hand, this stuff seems to keep it's value. Annoying now, but handy if we need to sell any of it. Next purchase, more \"Bergerac\" range oak furniture from John Lewis, not likely to see much of that come up cheap though unfortunately. Wish I could be a reseller for it, I'm top google result there too.

Spent the day in Tunbridge Wells, and had my second mushroom and truffle pizza in Pizza Express, even nicer this time. Tunbridge Wells was great, lots of individual shops, looking forward to going back there again. We found some more oak called Antix which kind of matches the John Lewis stuff, it's French again, maybe we should go direct to France and look for some furniture...

It's not all been about obsessive hoarding of furnishings this weekend though, we spent the evening crawling round the pubs of Folkestone, starting off with an overdue return to an old friend Chambers. Wouldn't you know it, it was house night again, so we left after a quick comple of pints. They must save their indie nights for the week, when it would be quieter, but it is annoying. Next stop was going to be The British Lion, but we got sidetracked by The Electric Beatles at Mustang's. Ropey sound quality, but good effort in terms of costume and that. After that on to The Ship Inn in the harbour, and a truly terrible singing keyboardist, then to The Mariner and a quite good Irish band, then last orders in The Guildhall and I can't remember what kind of music the duo there were playing for some reason.

Quiet day today.

Sorry if the site is flickering a bit, it's some JQuery javascript I'm trying out, going to do some more fancy dynamics on here soon.

A Seaside Year launches in Folkestone

Folkestone is to see a new creative project arrive in the town this winter with the launch of A Seaside Year bringing twelve months of new performing arts events and activities to the town.

Four key scheduled events for Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn will make up the programme for A Seaside Year, which is organised by local company Futuredream Media.

The first event A Seaside Year: Winter will take place in December with artist Lottie Child exploring what the community thinks about Folkestone�s Old Town. This thought provoking event will invite local residents to speak with Lottie at the People�s History Centre on The Old High Street between Monday 4th December and Thursday 7th December.

Lottie will gain a sense of identity for Folkestone�s Old Town area, through the thoughts, memories and narratives of its people, by speaking to them and going for walks around the Tontine Street / Old High Street area. Lottie says, �My question is how does the built environment shape our behaviour, movement and thoughts? I would like a variety of people to take me for a walk around Folkestone and show me the town as they inhabit it. From these walks, I will create a trail with activities for participants to try.� Lottie is looking for a wide variety of people to speak to and can be contacted by sending an email to lottie@seasideyear.co.uk or by telephoning 0796 201 2822

The result of Lottie�s interviews with residents will be a trail for all of the community to participate in on Saturday 9th December. Participants will be armed with a map, clues and their wits to follow the trail, which will be available from the People�s History Centre and other locations in the Old Town and harbour area between 10am and 3pm.

Director, Cathy Westbrook from Futuredream Media, located in Folkestone, says; �A Seaside Year: Winter is a great opportunity to help create and experience an alternative �winter wonderland� walk of Folkestone. The trails will be available on Saturday 9th December. With lots of other traditional goings-on in the town in the run up to Christmas, this will be something quirky and off-beat for people to explore.�

The results of A Seaside Year: Winter, will also be archived at the People�s History Centre as an oral narrative of Folkestone�s history, building up the long-term history of Folkestone for future generations.

More Seaside Year for 2007

The Winter event launches A Seaside Year. There will be more activities to get involved in as the year progresses. Artist-in-residence, Geraldine Pilgrim, will be following the events and working with various groups to look in more detail at some of the ideas which arise. There will be performances on 31st March, 4th August and 27th October 2007. For more information see www.seasideyear.co.uk