Folkestone Memories

Folkestone Then & Now Guestbook

Guestbook
Back to Guestbook
Write a comment on this guestbook entry.
Sign the Guestbook:
84) Chris McNair  Male
Location:
auatralia
IP logged Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/45.0.2454.101 Safari/537.36 View Web Page 
Thursday, 8 October 2015 00:52
I worked and lived at The Princes Hotel , Bouverie Road West Folkstone in 1955/6 and have a few memories
I can share
Christine - Site owner Thursday, 8 October 2015 00:55
I don't think I have the Princes Hotel on my Hotels page Chris. You don't happen to have a photo of it, do you?
chris mcnair Thursday, 8 October 2015 01:26
Hi Christine
You do have a photo,It was called Huberts Hotel before and was on the site of the Police Station in Bouverie Road West.It was bought by an insurance co. a better name for it would have been Fawlty Towers
chris mcnair Thursday, 8 October 2015 01:58
Hi Christine
I was going by memory, The name of the hotel was Hunderts Hotel and was demolished in 1977. Its on Page 3
Paul Seward Saturday, 10 October 2015 10:45
Would love to read the memories, Chris. Was the guy who ran it Capt. Beaumont? Did you have one or two permanent residents? Any other staff names?
Chris McNair Saturday, 10 October 2015 15:33
Hi Paul
Right first time .I will be forever grateful for the advice he gave me as a 13 homeless boy
Memories to follow soon
ChrisMcNair Sunday, 11 October 2015 19:42
Hi Paul
I worked as a kitchen hand and never went into the main buildig so did not meet any of the guests.
The staff were Head Waiter.Eddy
Chefs Jan from Poland
John a #@*%!ney
Hall Porter Pete ?
Maid Monique Italian learning english I have a vague memory she was royalty. She was sweet and mothered me

Manager Capt.Beaumont I believe he was the Son in Law Of the lady owner

More to come
chris mcnair Wednesday, 14 October 2015 02:27
Hi Paul.
My comment about Fawlty Towers was based on the general chaos in the kitchen and surrounding area.
The two chefs , Jan and #@*%!ney John did not get on and were always shouting at one another. There was one occasion when Jan was screaming at John while chasing him around the central workbench trying to stab him with a large carving knife. John was screaming just as loud with fear.I had to jump on the kitchen sink to avoid the knife myself.
Eddy was married and had a house nearby but preferred to live in the basement staff quarters.
I remember Capt. Beaumont being immaculate in dress and speach

More to follow.
CHRIS MCNAIR Friday, 30 October 2015 17:55
Hi Paul
I am now 74 and am writing my memoirs for the family.
Thinking back I realise that when my family were together we led a very comfortable life in Beckenham My fathers business failed and we broke up and I ended up in Folkstone as a kitchen hand.
I can remember standing in my room,on the radio Tex Ritter was singing The Waywood Wind and I said to myself " Im going to get out of this"The next day I gave in my notice.
Capt.Beaumont said that because of my lack of schooling I would have to work twice as hard to succeed.I took his advice.
Age 16 I started buying,mending and selling old cars,My Brother joined me and we built a very successful dealership [Havelock Motors Luton]
I would be very interested to hear more of Capt.Beaumont and the owners of the Hotel.
Even today I can hear Moniques beautiful italian accent and Chef Johns East End one
I recall the theater next door being very run down and scruffy.

More to follow
Comments:

Spammer?
Name Name:
E-mail E-mail*: (will not be displayed)
Password: what was the name of the funfair on the seafront?
HTML code is enabled
Smilies are ON
AGCode is ON
Administration
Powered by Lazarus Guestbook from carbonize.co.uk
Click above picture to return to Folkestone Then & Now Index page
To read the entries in the old guestbook, click HERE

Note:  You will no longer be able to post in the old book, it is for reference only.
Photo copyright Ian Mansfield
Your e-mail address is mandatory in order to post a message or a reply, but it will be hidden from the page.  It will never be used for any purpose other than to possibly contact you if you get an answer to a query you posted.
Because we have had a problem with advertisements being placed here, we have switched the security to a Folkestone question and answer.  If you want to make a legitimate post here, but don't know the answer to the question, please e-mail me at folkestonethenandnow@gmail.com  explaining a little of why you are posting, and I will give you the answer.  Hint:  it is one word, all in lower case letters.
ATTENTION: It appears you can only post to this guestbook if you are on a desktop computer. I have tested it with both an Ipad and a desktop, and it will only post from the latter. I will look for a more inclusive guestbook, but in the meantime, please accept my apologies.