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From an email received 2 February 2021.
Hi Paul,
It was nice to see a couple of photos of the "Star Tap" pub in
Maidstone (actually in Market Buildings rather than the High
Street).
I can tell you a little about it from the mid 70's on because this
is
when I began drinking there and when it was arguably one of the most
interesting pubs in the centre of town being both a dive bar in the
American sense of this term and also rather bohemian.
From about 1975 the pub began to be used by students of Maidstone
and
Fort Pitt Art Colleges and they brought in a younger generation of
drinkers. It was also the regular hang out for the Maidstone branch
of
the Socialist Workers Party and a lot of bikers of all types
including
rockers riding British bikes, particularly BSA A10's, often with
sidecars and several clubs including the Norseman, the Trojans and
the
Kent chapter of the Hells Angels. They would park their bikes in the
yard at the back of the pub which opened onto Earl Street and had a
large painted sign saying 'No Motorcycles'. The landlord's name was
Jack and for some time he had a barmaid by the name of June who
later on
worked as a traffic warden.
By 1977 some of the regulars had migrated to the "Royal Albion" in Havock
Lane and the two pubs shared customers for some years but the Albion
became the more used and the Tap lost most of its customers over the
following few years.
The layout of the pub at this time seems to have been reversed from
that
shown in your interior photo with the dart board and games at the
rear
(Earl Street) end. To the left of the main entrance from Market
Buildings there were back to back wooden booths with green leather
seats
providing considerable comfort and a degree of privacy but the
overall
feel of the place was shabby but comfortable with an easy-going
atmosphere and some small scale drug dealing.
I believe it was a Ind Coope pub and remember the prices when I
began
drinking there - Mild 25p a pint, Bitter 26p and Lager 27p.
Regards, Bob Atfant. |
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