From the East Kent Mercury 23 October, 1986.

TRUSTEES TO MEET

Deal's Charter Trustees meet tonight (Thursday) at the Quarterdeck at 6.

Among the items on the agenda is the appointment of the new town crier, following last month's competition.

Trustees will go into private to discuss the terms of the appointment."

From the Mercury, 5 August, 1999.

MUSEUM SCHEME IS LAUNCHED

A charity dinner was staged on Saturday in Deal, organised to lick-start a scheme to create a museum for the area.

Mayor of Deal Cllr Jim Rees masterminded the event at the "Quarterdeck" and more than £1,000 was raised to help create a trust for the scheme.

Artist Tom Burnham, who lives in Deal, boosted the proceeds by £400 by donating a painting of Deal seafront, which was auctioned during the evening.

Director of excavations for Dover Archaeology Group Keith Parfitt and former curator of antiquities at Greenwich Museum John Munday were the speakers.

Mr. Munday recommended the project should not be called a museum, but instead a heritage research centre.

From the Dover Mercury, 3 December, 2009.

Are houses and shops: returning?

ARCHITECTS' plans for the derelict Quarterdeck site on Deal seafront have been released and building could soon be demolished to make way for homes and six shops.

The district council owned single storey former nightclub replaced the original entertainments hall which stood on the same site opposite the pier.

But as this week's Now and Then postcard reveals, the land was once occupied by houses and businesses. On the left is a tobacconist shop, which is now a home, and next is the now empty fishing tackle business with the advertisement on the side reading: "The Foc'sle High Class Tobacconist and Confectioner. Fishing Tackle Stores".

This business closed in 2007 and Pete and Pat Young were the owners for 25 years after Mr and Mrs C Hurd.

According to Shops Remembered in Deal and Walmer by Judith Gaunt, the property in the late 1800s had been Lloyd's signal station, handling communications for Lloyd's of London. Beyond the property is a distinctive arch-shaped alleyway, which now leads into the Middle Street car park.

Gas lights

A house, now painted yellow, is still in the row, followed in the old postcard by a small shop with sun-blinds covering the window. A-boards can be seen outside, so it was possibly a newsagent. The next property in the black and white view was the bakery and restaurant business of William Oatridge and later Gordon Blain.

Above photo showing Alfred E Morgan from Bishop Auckland on the right, and gentleman unknown on left in 1926, outside Oatridge's.

This tall building, as well as the newsagent, were bombed in the Second World War.

It was later demolished to form part of the Quarterdeck site.

The Royal Hotel can clearly be seen in the distance and there is a row of gas lights alone the promenade.

From East Kent Mercury, February 25, 2010.

Deck plans

Controversial plans will be discussed tonight (Thursday) to demolish the Quarterdeck opposite Deal Pier to make way for homes and shops. The district council planning committee was due to discuss the proposals earlier this month, but the meeting was cancelled due to snow. Tonight's meeting starts at 6 pm at the council offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield, when councillors will [be] debating the 34-page report.

From East Kent Mercury, February 25, 2010.

BAKERY COULD OFFER A TOP-NOTCH LUNCH

By Judith Gaunt for Now and Then

The building on the right of this picture is the "Bohemium."

ADVERTISEMENTS for Oatridge's High Class Bakery and Restaurant, proclaimed it was "opposite the pier" and, if visitors and locals returning from a stroll along Deal Pier were in any doubt, the name was emblazoned on the rooftop of the attractive building.

Oatridge's sat between the "Antwerp Hotel," now The "Bohemian," and a row of shops and shipping offices.

The building was badly bombed during the Second World War and bought by Deal Borough Council. It was subsequently replaced by The "Quarterdeck," which in turn made way for the current "Quarterdeck," itself now about to be demolished and replaced with shops and flats.

Oatridge's was run by William Oatridge, the son of Charles Oatridge, a customs officer, from Victoria Road, Deal. William trained as a baker in Ramsgate and by the late 1890s had set up his shop on Deal seafront.

He won many national prizes for bakery and confectionery and in due course could boast the latest New Machine Bakery "fitted with every modem requirement for assuring perfect cleanliness".

Many local organisations held their annual dinners and other events in the Oatridge's function rooms, which could offer morning coffee, afternoon tea and evening meals as well as the wide variety of breads, cakes and pies from the bakery.

William Oatridge's daughter married John Tapping, the baker of Victoria Road, Deal whose son took over that business and became Mayor of Deal.

Both father and son were presidents of the Deal Chamber of Trade.

In the 1920s Oatridge's was purchased by Gordon Blain, a London baker, who came to Deal regularly for the fishing and decided to set up business in the town.

Gordon also owned 92 High Street and this property too was bombed during the Second World War.

Gordon Blain, perhaps thankfully, did not live to see his Deal businesses bombed as he died in 1938, according to Bygone Kent May 2001.

At the time of his death he owned over 100 bread and confectionery' shops in London and Essex and farms in Essex and Mongeham.