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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 22:27:08 GMT
Has the Kingsley arms gone too now? I know the star near Linton crossroads is now houses and that one between motley hall and the star ( can't think of its name) is gone too, as is the parkwood tavern Was that the Kings Arms, junction of Old Loose Hill and Loose Road? (now a house) |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 22:31:25 GMT
White Lion - Lower Stone Street, demolished and replaced by Miller House offices, now apartments London Tavern - now MuMu pizza Wig and Gown - outside County Hall, demolished and replaced by Invicta House offices Bull - Gabriels Hill - now betting office Papermaker's Arms, then Motley Hall - Loose Road, abandoned? Blue Door - Sutton Road, care home? Invicta house was originally Pendragon House and was owned by an insurance company before KCC bought it in the 90s and renamed it. If you look down on that building from the top of Buckland Hill (as you must do often!), you can see the prison behind and the roof of the prison chapel - which is a very similar shape to the (somewhat unusual) roof of Invicta House. I've often wondered if the architect saw that view when the old pub was still there and deliberately designed it to match. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 22:46:24 GMT
Thanks for further updates (although I've just spent almost two hours trying to track them all down!!).
That's almost 40 pubs now - hard to believe.
Top post updated.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 22:48:53 GMT
Has the Kingsley arms gone too now? I know the star near Linton crossroads is now houses and that one between motley hall and the star ( can't think of its name) is gone too, as is the parkwood tavern Was that the Kings Arms, junction of Old Loose Hill and Loose Road? (now a house) near the shops? Yes I think so |
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Post by pedant on Oct 11, 2017 9:27:04 GMT
Invicta house was originally Pendragon House and was owned by an insurance company before KCC bought it in the 90s and renamed it. If you look down on that building from the top of Buckland Hill (as you must do often!), you can see the prison behind and the roof of the prison chapel - which is a very similar shape to the (somewhat unusual) roof of Invicta House. I've often wondered if the architect saw that view when the old pub was still there and deliberately designed it to match. I've always understood that, what is now Invicta House, was an exact copy of at least one other building, possibly for the same insurance company. The only alleged difference was that the lower ground floor had a sunken, sprung, dance floor, rather than a swimming pool as originally designed. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 12:27:35 GMT
If you look down on that building from the top of Buckland Hill (as you must do often!), you can see the prison behind and the roof of the prison chapel - which is a very similar shape to the (somewhat unusual) roof of Invicta House. I've often wondered if the architect saw that view when the old pub was still there and deliberately designed it to match. I've always understood that, what is now Invicta House, was an exact copy of at least one other building, possibly for the same insurance company. The only alleged difference was that the lower ground floor had a sunken, sprung, dance floor, rather than a swimming pool as originally designed. This is either a very weird whoosh, or a paragraph that needs a little further explanation! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 18:59:48 GMT
Was that the Kings Arms, junction of Old Loose Hill and Loose Road? (now a house) near the shops? Yes I think so Kings Arms and Kingsley Arms = 2 different pubs |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 19:31:29 GMT
near the shops? Yes I think so Kings Arms and Kingsley Arms = 2 different pubs Yes I know, I spoke about the Kingsley arms and "the pub between motley hall and the star near Linton crossroads" in the same post. I could not remember what the "pub in between" was called. |
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Post by pedant on Oct 12, 2017 11:56:46 GMT
I've always understood that, what is now Invicta House, was an exact copy of at least one other building, possibly for the same insurance company. The only alleged difference was that the lower ground floor had a sunken, sprung, dance floor, rather than a swimming pool as originally designed. This is either a very weird whoosh, or a paragraph that needs a little further explanation! Wasn't meant to be a wind up requiring a "whoosh".
Was involved with Pendragon / Invicta at the time KCC took it over and these were the stories told at the time.
The building in Maidstone was at least the second one built to this design - at the time I did find references to one other, vague recollections of it being Wiltshire way
At the time KCC bought the building the lower ground floor did have a sunken, sprung dance floor. Hexagonal in shape equivalent to the full height atrium in the middle of the building. For those who don't know the building there are five(ish) floors of offices running all around a vast open space in the middle covered by what was a leaking glass roof.
Believe the dance floor is still there, as part of the structure, but now covered by a temporary - not sure that's the right/adequate word - floor put in in refurbishment around 2002 to make the whole lower ground floor one level and used at that time as KCC's 'call centre'.
Rumour had it that the dance floor was designed to be a swimming pool - never did substantiate that rumour but the structure would have fit.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 12:31:55 GMT
This is either a very weird whoosh, or a paragraph that needs a little further explanation! Wasn't meant to be a wind up requiring a "whoosh".
Was involved with Pendragon / Invicta at the time KCC took it over and these were the stories told at the time.
The building in Maidstone was at least the second one built to this design - at the time I did find references to one other, vague recollections of it being Wiltshire way
At the time KCC bought the building the lower ground floor did have a sunken, sprung dance floor. Hexagonal in shape equivalent to the full height atrium in the middle of the building. For those who don't know the building there are five(ish) floors of offices running all around a vast open space in the middle covered by what was a leaking glass roof.
Believe the dance floor is still there, as part of the structure, but now covered by a temporary - not sure that's the right/adequate word - floor put in in refurbishment around 2002 to make the whole lower ground floor one level and used at that time as KCC's 'call centre'.
Rumour had it that the dance floor was designed to be a swimming pool - never did substantiate that rumour but the structure would have fit.
Sorry to have doubted you! I worked for Lloyd's at the time they built their new HQ at Chatham, and money was no object in those days - not only was the building very nice to work in, with views over the river, courtyard gardens, terraces, three different dining areas, and a bar(!), but there were also plans to build a sports and social club on site (they eventually took over someone else's instead). Firms, especially in the City, were much more paternalistic in those days, looking after their staff and assuming that people would work with them for life. So I can well believe that an office building might have been designed to have areas that could be converted into social uses. A swimming pool still seems a bit much though! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 18:29:12 GMT
Anyone know why hoardings have gone up round the Queen Vic?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 19:02:19 GMT
It's to do with Station refurbishment.
Hard to believe that one day we might have a station as new as Sevenoaks.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 20:24:52 GMT
Very puzzling - how can a transport system that is permanently strapped for cash afford to redevelop a station that is pretty much OK as it is? Maybe a bigger ticket office would be nice at peak times, but what on earth are they going to do with all that space?
Also very puzzling, before the hoardings went up, some seriously heavy concrete blocks were put in place round the QV, with equally serious metal fixings attached to them - far too meaty just to hold some hoardings up.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 21:56:41 GMT
According to the other thread according to the KM it's going to be the new ticket office.
Pretty sure this won't alter the age of the station, though.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 22:50:53 GMT
Train Spotters' Corner - ME was originally a terminus (of a branch line from Otford). It was only extended to Ashford (and, incidentally, past my back garden) 10 years later. It was also original just called 'Maidstone' (as was what is now Maidstone West - just to aid clarity).
The reason it was only a branch line was that the land owners around here were so anti railways that they refused to let the proposed line from London to Channel ports be built through the town (the preferred route). Consequently, the main route to the Channel became the North Kent line, with the line across the Weald to Ashford as a secondary 'main' line. By the time the ME line was extended to Ashford, it was too late to alter the pattern of usage, and it remained operated as a secondary line - a problem we still suffer from today.
And, if that wasn't daft enough, exactly the same thing happened with HS1. The original plan was a 'Maidstone Parkway' station where the new line goes under Bluebell Hill, giving us a 25 minute journey time to London, and making Maidstone the principle stop between Paris and London. But the local numpties campaigned successfully against this, having learnt nothing from the first stupidity.
Just think - not only would we have been 25 minutes from London and the main stop en-route to the Continent, but Fleet would still be called Gravesend - and still be shite.
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