DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Canterbury, January, 2025.

Page Updated:- Tuesday, 28 January, 2025.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1963

(Name from)

Phoenix

Open 2024+

67 (31) Old Dover Road

Canterbury

01227 464220

http://www.thephoenix-canterbury.co.uk/

https://whatpub.com/phoenix

Phoenix Tavern 1965

Above photograph taken by Edward Wilmot in 1965.

Above picture taken from their web site.

Phoenix beermat 1980

Above beermat circa 1980, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Phoenix sign 1977Phoenix sign 1980s

Phoenix sign left June 1977, sign right 1980s.

Phoenix sign 1991Phoenic sign 2012

Above sign left July 1991, and right 2012.

Above with thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com

 

Originally known as the "Bridge House Tavern" standing on the Old Dover Road on the corner of Cossington Road near to the railway bridge and dating back to 1874. The original pub was almost destroyed by fire in 1968 but was renovated and the name changed to that of the "Phoenix" which we know today.

 

From their web page.

The Phoenix is situated on the corner of Old Dover Road and Cossington Road, between the County Cricket Ground and Canterbury city centre. A Free House, The Phoenix always endeavours to stock eight real ales, including one mild. Food is available lunchtimes and evenings, there is outdoor seating on our beer terrace, a covered smoking area and a patron's car park to the side.

Bob & Nilla Griffiths are now the licensees, having also been running the "Rose & Crown" in St. Dunstans for over three years and now transferring their attentions to The "Phoenix." While both now are retired, Bob was previously in medical sales whilst Nilla ran two hairdressing salons. Last owning pubs thirty-four years ago in Rochester, including The Don Cossack, they now turn their attentions and fondness of real ale to one of Canterbury's best known hostelries, well loved amongst cricket fans, visitors to the city and locals alike.

Bob's family were in Pubs all his life and he learnt his cellar skills from his step father who apart from being a Licensee had also been a dray man for twenty-five years, and so there was nothing you could tell him about beer, (one quote being "there are no such thing as bad beers, just some better than others").

 

From the Kentish Gazette, Thursday 3rd February 1972. Kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Did wind cause pub boiler explosion?

The kitchen boiler explosion that rocked a Canterbury public house for the second time in six months on Friday may have been caused by the direction of the wind.

Mr. Bill Morgan and his wife, Betty, narrowly escaped injury. They were serving behind the bar of the Phoenix public house, Old Dover Road, when there was a “terrific explosion.”

Phoenic explosian 1972

“I rushed into the kitchen to find smoke billowing everywhere,” said Mrs. Morgan."

Her daughter, Mrs. Gillian Sharp, was in bed above the kitchen.

“I heard a rumbling, then a crunching, and an explosion,” she said. “I went outside and found a hole in the roof and the top of the chimney stack off.” Added Mrs. Morgan: “It was fortunate no-one was in the kitchen at the time of the explosion. The iron boiler cover was blown right across the room and made dents in the fridge door.”

The boiler, oil-fired with an electric motor previously exploded in the summer. It did not cause much damage that time, but the explosion hurled pots and pans standing on the boiler all round the room.

“When a man came to fix it he said the explosion was caused by the direction of the wind,” said Mrs. Morgan. “I cannot really believe that, but I hope it’s not going to blow up every time it’s windy.”

 

 

This pub brews its own beers (2016) under the name of the "Cossack Brewery."

 

LICENSEE LIST

GOLDSMITH Tony & Daphne 1975-90

Last pub licensee had GRIFFITHS Bob & Nilla 2012+

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-

Pub-info@Dover-Kent.Com.

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LINK to www.pubwiki.co.uk