The property
shows on maps of 1624 but it is not known
when it
first entered the trade. It was selling liquor by 1843 and it opened at
four a.m. in 1872 and three thirty a.m. from 1874. It was one of the few
pubs allowed to continue with that concession after 1900. (But possibly
five a.m. then).
By 1909 the front of
the building was in danger of collapse and a refrontage operation was
performed. It proved to be a temporary solution because ten years later,
other plans called for the practical rebuilding of the whole. From all
accounts that was quite an achievement. Its neighbour, "The Cinque Ports
Arms" was of a like age and was in danger of collapse whilst the work
proceeded. The exercise apparently called for perfect timing and
execution.
Further plans for
alterations were approved in 1928 but I have no details. As a matter of
interest, and still present as I retype in 1989, but now only a blind
alley, is the passage alongside the pub which once led to Middle Row in
the old pier district.
This was damaged by
enemy action early in world war two but was repaired and made
operational again by January 1941. That was a rare distinction indeed
and certainly the only case in the town that I know of.
A past outlet of Rigden and Company,
Faversham, which passed to the Whitbread group. It closed in 1986 and
remained boarded up and derelict to 1988 when it was renovated and
integrated with the "Cinque Ports Arms".
(Smith, 1991)
