FALSTAFF TAP Pub of Canterbury

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Canterbury, March, 2025.

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 12 March, 2025.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1700

Falstaff Tap

Latest 1991+

(Name to)

5 North Lane

Canterbury

Above map 1874 identified by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1926, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1926, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1954. Left of photo. Kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photograph by Edward Wilmot 1965.

Above photo, date unknown, showing the Bat and Trap team known as the All Knights. Alf Hopkins was captain.

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo 1987.

Above photo, 1988, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1989, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo taken from Google maps March 2009.

Above photo, date unknown.

Falstaff Tap sign left, 1967, sign right, May 1991.

Above with thanks from Rory Kehoe (left) and Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com

Above beer-mat kindly sent by Mike Lyon.

Whitbread sign.

Above card issued April 1955. Sign series 5 number 20.

From the Kentish Gazette, Thursday 12th December 1974.

Above photo, Christmas 1974.

Listed as early as 1700 from brewers records, this could have been associated with the "Falstaff." The tap room being where beer was served from the tap or cask and often relatively near to or indeed next door to (but not always) a larger premises of the same name where coach drivers and servants were accommodated.

Licensee James Scutt was convicted for being open before hours in 1854.

The premises unfortunately closed in 1998 after shortening its name to simply the "Tap." However, in 1999 Wethspoons bought the premises next door, named it the "Westgate Inn."

When the "Falstaff Tap" became the "Tap" and subsequently closed, it was not subsumed within the "Westgate Inn." The "Falstaff Tap" site is still owned by the "Falstaff Hotel" and the premises are still used for storage and staff accommodation. The old bat and trap pitch became hotel parking.

It is said that the house was situated in the poorer part of Canterbury and the pub reflected this, having somewhat of a "spit and sawdust" atmosphere.

From the Kentish Gazette, 23 September 1845.

Awfully Sudden Death.

Mr. Williams, who entered only last week into possession of the "Falstaff Tap," Westgate, Canterbury, fell down in a fit, we believe, of apoplexy, on Sunday evening, and was instantly a corpse. The deceased appeared quite well and hearty after partaking of his dinner at noon.

Maidstone Telegraph and West Kent Messenger. 28 August 1870.

James Elvey, landlord of the "Falstaff Tap," was charged with keeping his house open for the sale of beer after 11 o'clock on Sunday night.

He pleaded guilty and was fined 1s.; costs 12s. 6d.

From the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 31 March 1900. Price 1d.

DRUNK AND CARRYING FIREARMS WITHOUT A LICENSE.

Harold Shand wass charged with being drunk and incapable on the previous night.

P.C. HoIness stated that at 11.20 the previous night he was in St. Dunstan's when be heard shouts of "Murder" and "police." He went to the "Falstaff Tap" and found prisoner there helplessly drunk. He was obliged to take him into custody.

The Magistrates imposed a fine of 5s. and 6s. 6d. cost, or seven days' imprisonment.

The prisoner was further charged with carrying firearms without a licence on the same night.

Richard Bervel, a cabman, living at 54a, North Lane, deposed that he was in the "Falstaff Tap" on the previous evening at about 8.15, and the prisoner was there also. Witness saw him in the bar again at 10.20, when prisoner was having something to drink. Prisoner and someone else were speaking about the war when the former pulled out of his pocket the pistol produced and some shots, saying, at the same time, that that would do for the Boers. Witness asked prisoner to give him the pistol and he did so. He asked him for it as he thought he might do some harm with it as he was the worse for drink.

Serge. Swain stated that at 10.15 that morning he was in the police office when he told the prisoner that the pistol was found on him, and he asked him if he had a licence for it. He said he had not, and did not know he required one as he had carried it for some years, and never had one. Ha carried it while in the West Indies for his own protection.

The Bench imposed a fine of 5s. and 8s. 6d. costs, or seven days imprisonment.

From the Historic Canterbury web site www.machadoink.com

1907 "Falstaff" Mews, North Lane Canterbury. W. Burton, Proprietor. Superior Broughams, Landaus, Victorias, Brakes, Waggonettes, Dog Carts, etc., at reasonable terms. Funeral Cars and Carriages supplied. Complete turn-outs jobbed. Special facilities for commercial gentlemen. Sole Contractor at Canterbury West Station for Omnibusses and Flys. Orders received at the "Falstaff" Mews and at Nash's Brushshop, 23 St. George's Street. Tele No. 50. Patronized by Royalty.

Above account taken from Facebook. 1 Nov 2013

By John D A Hippisley.

I used to run the "Fallstaff tap" In the 1980's and had many ghostly experiences.

Rolf and Carole Steinmetz were the Landlords at the time running the main hotel, they and their young children lived in the upstairs rooms, the cellar was just that or so I thought until I saw an old man in the far corner one night whilst I was bottling up for the next day, I asked him plainly "what the F*** he was doing in there," and he looked straight through me as if I was not there. I felt the cellar temperature drop by 14 degrees, common in a paranormal event. I walked towards him but he vanished.

In the rooms above Carole often found that her son would often sleep with the light on which annoyed his younger brother, but when she attempted to turn it off one night before she left the room the light was switched back on but not by either of her sons who lay asleep in bed on the opposite side of the room.

Some weeks later, the younger of the boys said that, he had a new friend, but nobody else could see him, Carole put it down to a young boy making up stories, but later that month, she found a razor blade in the sink in the bedroom, how that got there she never knew.

A week later, she woke to hear the sound of her child's toy bicycle rolling around on the floor above, she gingerly made her way up the stairs and as she got to the bedroom the sound stopped abruptly, she open the door, and saw the pedal of the bike swinging, but her son was fast asleep in bed, there was no way he could have jumped into bed that quick. She put it down to an unexplained event.

Three Months after her son first told her of the mystery boy her sister came to stay close to Christmas week, the hotel was full, and she put her sister up in the child's bedroom, but she could not make it through the night, as she was constantly awoken by the feeling of someone stroking the side of her cheek as she slept.

LICENSEE LIST

GREEN Henry