GUINEA Pubs of Whitstable

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Whitstable, January, 2023.

Page Updated:- Sunday, 01 January, 2023.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1841-

Guinea Inn

Latest 1970s+

31 Island Place

Whitstable

Above photo, date unknown, by Douglas West.

Above photo, circa 1909, kindly set by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, 1952, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo taken and sent by Steve Glover, August 2017.

Known to be established by 1841.

The "Guinea Inn" was part of Dollar Row, built by a native of Whitstable, who became a deep-sea diver and discovered gold in the wreck of a Spanish Armada ship off the coast of Scotland. The inn was so called because its construction was paid for with spade guineas, which presumably had been received as payment for the Spanish gold.

Another story relating to the naming goes as follows:- The diver found dollars on a wrecked Spanish galleon, hence Dollar Row and that he also retrieved some Spade Guineas from another wreck and named the pub he built in commemoration of this. Spade Guineas, from the era of George III, were so named due the shield design on the reverse looking like a spade.

I am informed that this used to be a Whitbread, ex-Fremlin's pub. It was on the left with the sea on the right. Rory Kehoe says it was definitely there (tiny, smoky, with a chap called Wilf on the piano) in the early 1980s.

From the Kentish Chronicle and General Advertiser, 14 September, 1861. Price 1 1/2d.

NEW LICENSES.

There were six applications for spirit licenses on the part of beer-shop keepers, viz, John Brooker, of the “Richmond Tavern,” Brook-street, Herne Bay; Thomas Newington, “Cross Keys,” Chartham; William Henry Pettman, of the “Guinea,” John Harman, of the “Prince Albert,” and William Philpott, of the “Dredgerman’s Arms,” all of the parish of Whitstable; and Samuel James Salter, of the “Queens Head,” Seasalter.

LICENSEE LIST

PETTMAN William Henry 1841-61+

CURLING Richard 1874+

GRIFFITHS William 1889+

GRIFFITHS Edwin 1881-91+ (age 69 in 1891)