Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
13 September 2009
07:3928858I hear tell that the bearded landlord and charming landlady of the White Horse Inn have sold up and are moving to pastures new in about a months time. Its currently closed ..yet again whilst they holiday.
If true may I wish them all the best in their new venture and just hope the new owners don't knock this world reknown public house about too much or worse still drag in Carol Smiley for a 60 minute makeover.
Please don't paint over the channel swimmers names, times,dates and signatures.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
13 September 2009
09:4528867it would be very sad if too many changes are made to the white horse, it has a charm all of it's own.
we could do with a pub like that in the town centre.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
13 September 2009
09:5128868shame really,its the best pub in town just right for a quiet beer or three with good company.
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
13 September 2009
09:5528870The White Horse is Dover's best, and I believe oldest, pub. It doesn't need changing at all. Heaven forfend it closes. A proper pub, full of charm. Dover used to be full of its ilk (The Mogul, Arlington etc), before the town started its long, drawn-out, painful, DHB Townwall Freeway-induced closing down sale about 20 years ago.
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
13 September 2009
10:2028876I have heard rumours about the new owners and if they are true the intention is to bring back food, but otherwise try and keep the pub as it is only time will tell.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
13 September 2009
15:0428885Sadly though the oul White Horse is looking grim. It has more vegetation growing out of it than most of Dover's allotments. It is beginng to get that crumbled look so remiscent of the early Snoops period. The back garden has tigers and amphibian reptiles, previously thought to be extinct, roaming about unperturbed by drinkers. We once had parties there in that back garden..and very good parties too..so its sad to see. We have also had parties too indoors in cooler times.
The current couple are/were pleasant but it may have all got too much for them. Money needs to be pumped into maintenance. The swimmers names on the wall are a plus point so if there are new owners coming along they probably wouldnt disturb the heritage. I think it could probably do with a new injection of life at this point.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
14 September 2009
11:0028923I love the White Horse and will miss the congenial Jack and Jill who are always so welcoming and as PaulB says we have had some great Doverforum parties there. It does need a good deal of maintenance work done particularly on the outside. I'm sure whoever takes it over will keep the swimming memorabilia intact. Jeez! I must have got a little bit too inebriated at times to have missed those Tigers
Guest 670- Registered: 23 Apr 2008
- Posts: 573
14 September 2009
15:4828924To survive at all the White Horse has to change as the weekly cost of running a pub is considerably higher than most people think.
Good food could be the answer providing it is a simple menu that has mass appeal. To embark on up-market food would in my opinion be disastrous as the premises do not lend themselves to that type of trade.
It also needs to be a bit more user friendly, I went in there with a friend of mine about 3 years ago, the interior was looking tired then, apart from a few locals around the bar area we were the only people in there. We were not made to feel welcome, the atmosphere was dull apart from the bores round the bar who were competing with one and other to see who could put on the best false laugh, all in all it was a weird experience that I had not encountered in any other pub.
Yes I agree Paul it needs an injection of life and a licensee who will welcome everyone and make them feel that however much they spend or whatever walk of life they may come from, they are important.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
14 September 2009
17:4328929Very accurate description Dave. You had to make sure you brought your own people with you if you went there for a bit of enjoyment, as it certainly did get that way. The few of the more recent times I went there it was exactly like that...the few guys round the bar and no other life, a feeling you were intruding and a feeling of delapidation.
I would love to see it return with some new buzz. All the furniture needs chucking out, much of it being uncomfortable and unwelcoming, there is a sofa in the snug bit thats been there since the days of the Reformation.
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
14 September 2009
19:5728935I hear it is to be knocked down to make way for a car park extension and an improved version built at Whitfield, patronised by braindead corporation fodder mindlessly force feeding themselves mass produced garbage before going back to their autistic, empty lives in Whitfield's future grief holes while they sneer at strange bearded people drinking warm ale.
Ing-er-lund, your future.
Guest 670- Registered: 23 Apr 2008
- Posts: 573
14 September 2009
20:1128936All beers are mass-produced Andrew apart from those brewed by the micro breweries. The problem with real ale is two-fold, the amount of waste and the relatively short shelf life. To be commercially viable you have to sell a lot of it or it is simply unprofitable.
I live in Whitfield and I certainly have never lead an autistic empty life, indeed far from it.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
14 September 2009
20:3528938Actually all beers are not massed produced.We now have more brewers than ever before with 71 independent brewers churning out some excellent organically friendly non additive beer.
However Dave 1 I admit the beers most pubs sell is mass produced...worse luck.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
15 September 2009
06:0928942Can I just take exception to the idea that someone identified as autistic necessarily has an empty life? We all have alternative lifestyles - each different to the other. If someone with autism has an empty life it is us that have failed him or her - there is no need for an empty life, and I would ask for a definition of emptiness. Your idea and my idea of a full or interesting life will be different to his or hers, their and the man next door. There are many forms of internal and external life, and I would ask us not to judge or use glib descriptions for people.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
15 September 2009
07:0728946I hear that the First and Last pub has closed its doors (again).
The tenants simply couldn't get enough customers to make it pay; they are a nice enough couple and made Jean and I very welcome when we popped in for a drink.
I did try promoting them as much as I could through my various emails; they tried too, with various music-nights, Sunday lunches and fresh food, but you can only buy so much and throw it away for so long and that time has sadly come.
The original First and Last pub closed and became a private house; this was renamed from the Albion I believe and will probably become a private house - the next pub inland that will be the First and the Last pub is probably the White Horse, but can't see it changing it's name to reflect it is the First and Last pub.
Part of the problem, may be that it is a Shepherd Neame pub and the cost for a tenant to buy his wet-supplies from them is so expensive that he has to sell it much higher than many other pubs, so people won't go there - plus the cost of the tenancy etc.
Shame.
Roger
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
15 September 2009
07:4028949These pubs were mainly used by dock workers when I first came to Dover in the 70's.
Meal breaks and times in between ferries in the winter months were spent in the Albion having a toasted sarnie and a pint.They were used by truck drivers Customs SB Immigration and Marshals but once the no drinking whilst on duty ban came in it sounded the death bell for places like the Albion ,Golden Arrow, Cinque Ports and Rose and Crown.Pity they were happy days and the facility was only rarely abused by a very smalll minority of workers.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
16 September 2009
17:5929003Dave, did not mean to imply anything wrong with current Whitfield residents, just that I believe the planned future mega-estates will lack any sense of community at all.
And that it will probably get a Hawkinge Mayfly-type pub, or whatever it's called. a soulless corporate feeding station compared to a historic pub like the Horse.
I lived in Whitfield for nearly 30 years myself and still have family there. In fact I go to Whitfield Action Group committee meetings, so Whitfield people don't have to!
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
17 September 2009
07:2629032And what's wrong with the Mayfly Andrew ??
We go there now and again and have never found a problem, with the pub, the food, the drink or service and it's good value too.
It isn't an old pub of course (about three years old), but is pretty good, both as an eating house and a drinking establishment - it's mostly full too and you have to book a table at week-ends.
Roger
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
17 September 2009
17:1429064I think it's pretty obvious what I think is wrong with it Roger!
But to each his own.
I just have an innate abhorrence of anything that smacks of homogenised mega-corporations and prefer the private, individual and/or historic any day. Support small businesses and all that....
Bern, I think you must realise the word "autistic" was used figuratively.
Please, people, stop being so oversensitive.