Folkestone Pubs & Bear Debauchery

A Local History Archive

Updated July 2026  |  Folkestone, Kent

BEAR BARRING REGISTER | WHO IS THE BEAR? | CCTV SPOTTED BEAR ANTICS | SHEPWAY BEAR WATCH | BEAR BAITING KARAOKE | FOLK KARAOKE RECORDINGS | 1977 FESTIVAL | HOODEN HORSE TRIALS | MATCH FIT | THE LOST DOME SHOW | SPONSORSHIPS | PUBS & HOTELS | CLUBS & ENTERTAINMENTS | SOURCES

BEAR, THE — GENERAL NOTE The Bear is a harmless but exhausting nuisance who believes nearly every Folkestone venue has booked him as entertainment. Most have not. Most have now barred him. His usual sequence is: denied booking, unsolicited Widecombe Fair, demand for one more encore, argument with landlord or doorman, theatrical removal, brief forgiveness, fresh barring. READ THE FULL BEAR DOSSIER VIEW THE JOHN BARLEYCORN RECORDINGS

Folkestone Bear Barring Register

BARRING REGISTER — nine exclusion records and two non-entry files. District composite files may contain more than one doorway, landlord or regrettable encore.

This modest catalogue records selected licensed premises, social clubs and places of entertainment in Folkestone. The factual history remains in ordinary type. The Bear records follow licensing notes, recollection and recordings whose dates are sometimes uncertain.

Public Houses, Streets and Hotels

Picture	Premises and address	Historical note and Bear memorandum
	Earl Grey 35 Old High Street 1836–2009	The Dover-Kent list records the house from 1836; Warren Press gives its run as 1837–2009. A Shepherd Neame house at the upper end of the narrow Old High Street, it later passed to other use. Bear note: claimed a tea-based hereditary right to sing “Widecombe Fair”; was unable to explain either tea or heredity.
	Brewery Tap 53 Tontine Street Recorded 1870–2004+	The archive list records the name from 1870. Warren Press states that the present building was erected in 1877, replacing an earlier pub on the same site. Bear note: interfered with a cask while announcing that the brewery had “sent him to open the second half.”
	Rendezvous Street venues Rendezvous Street and upper High Street Various dates	The street has supported many changing bars. The archive lists, among others, Bar 24 and Stones Bar at No. 24, the Beer Shop at No. 32, and Fitzpatricks. The older Rendezvous Hotel stood at 1 High Street/Broad Street and opened in 1866. Bear note: refused at one door, forgiven at the next, and barred again before reaching the kerb.
	Tontine Street pubs Tontine Street Various dates	A long licensed and commercial street. Archive entries include the Brewery Tap at No. 53, the former Bank at No. 46, later venues at Nos. 2–8, and newer bars at Nos. 60 and 61. Bear note: completed what he called a “formal barrel inspection” with no authority, ladder or useful conclusion. The later Fighting Talk recordings were made at the Old Buoy, 46 Tontine Street.
	The Mariner 16 The Stade Mariner name from 2000	The Dover-Kent list records the Mariner name from 2000, following the Carpenters at this address, and marks the premises open again from 5 December 2024. Bear note: arrived after closing with the Horse and complete portable ring; conducted the engagement outside by flash.
	Farl 20 Cheriton Place Named from December 2024	An Irish pub at 20 Cheriton Place. Dover-Kent records the Farl name from 23 December 2024, following the Firkin Alehouse. Bear note: advertised Bear Baiting Karaoke was cancelled after a semaphorecation error and the Bears’ non-arrival. Reschedule pending.
	Grand Burstin Hotel Marine Parade, harbour Opened in the 1970s	Built on the Royal Pavilion Hotel site and designed to resemble a ship, the Burstin opened in the mid-1970s. Dover-Kent records the harbour-linked design and the later purchase by Britannia Hotels in 2004. Bear note: reported to reception as “the cabaret” and requested a cabin, a spotlight and a modest bowl of pears.

Clubs, Collectives and Entertainments

Picture	Premises and address	Historical note and Bear memorandum
	Folkestone Park Bowls Club Radnor Park Club history not established here	Radnor Park was given to the people of Folkestone by the Earl of Radnor in 1886. The district council lists a bowls club among the park’s present facilities. Bear note: entered as a late substitute, delivered a monologue to the jack and was asked to return the measuring string.
	Hooden Horse Trials Club Shepway Games; Dome Amusements Edition	Playable browser side quest, Seaboard rollout lore, Bad Bingo licence scandal and the current Hooden Horse game file.
	The International Folklore Fiasco Folklore Festival Archive	Late-1970s festival, craft souvenir and seafront-cabaret material marking the Bear's first major category error: mascot to the organisers, cabaret act to himself.
	Club Shepway Creative Quarter; B&B Project Space Active by 2008–09	A Folkestone group of emerging artists and writers. In summer 2008 it used the Leas Lift as a temporary exhibition space for Vernacular Spectacular; a publication launch followed at the Old Bank Bar in Tontine Street in November 2009. Its later papers and beast projects provided the apparatus for the Bear’s revival. Bear note: brought back into circulation by an arts company which had underestimated the administrative consequences.
	The Dome / “Live at the Dome” Former Rotunda site, seafront Demolished 2007	The Dome arcade formed part of Folkestone’s Rotunda amusement complex. The Rotunda closed in 2003; the Dome arcade was demolished in 2007. “Live at the Dome” is retained here as a Bear-file title, but has not been independently verified as the venue’s historic trading name. Bear note: mistook the amusement dome for a concert booking and demanded an encore from the change machines. Incident file 008.

The Dome, Rotunda Closure & the Bear’s Lost Show

SEAFRONT ENTERTAINMENT FILE — from summer-show confidence to arcade closure, nightclub afterlife and an increasingly portable Bear.

Picture	Archive section	Contents
	The Bear at the Dome Section overview	The Rotunda amusement world, Marine Pavilion cabaret and the lost show assembled into one seafront file.
	Marine Parade Masterplan, 1976 The Bear and the Future That Never Arrived	The Civic Offices model, proposed seafront leisure and conference district, International Folklore Festival and the Bear's unexplained place within the public display.
	Live at the Dome Approx. 1977–89	The Bear’s supposed headline show, mid-1980s relaunch and sponsorship by Rio’s Ice Cream and Silver Spring Roller Cola.
	Burstin Cabaret Transfer Harbour hotel phase	After a Pavilion altercation the Bear moves “over the road” into hotel cabaret, coach-party entertainment and the revolving-door incident file.
	Rotunda Closure 2002–07	Sale, staged removal of the rides, the Dome’s final closure and the collapse of the Bear’s resident engagement.
	Marine Pavilion Afterlife The Priz / Onyx	Variety and roller skating followed by La Parisienne, the Priz, Bonkers, Onyx, student nights, permanent Bear barring and demolition.
	Lost Show Files Fragment register	Programmes, transferred ride footage, warning notices, sponsor dockets and CCTV tapes which are predictably unavailable.

Commercial Sponsorships & Product Tie-ins

REFRESHMENT FILE — Rio’s Ice Cream, Silver Spring Roller Cola, Panda Shandy and the Rotunda kiosk incident.

Picture	Archive section	Contents
	The Panda Shandy / Roller Cola Debacle Rotunda kiosk and seafront stock	Roller Cola can featuring the Bear, Rio’s ice-lolly wrapper, Panda Shandy rival drink reference and the note withdrawing the refreshment sponsorship after the kiosk incident.

Sources

• Dover-Kent Archives: Folkestone pubs list — principal names, addresses and date ranges.
• Folkestone Then & Now: Folkestone Pubs — supplementary building and closure notes.
• Folkestone Then & Now: Folkestone Pubs, page 2 — further venue photographs and updates.
• Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Radnor Park.
• Public Art Online: Club Shepway and Vernacular Spectacular.
• Folkestone Harbour & Seafront: Rotunda history.
• High Rep Gym, Folkestone — local reference for boxing and strength-training material.
• Rotunda, Marine Pavilion and Onyx material — Dome photographs, demolition sequence, show programmes and the 2015 listing and demolition dispute.
• Rio's material — Marshall Street factory, former Tontine Street parlour and recollections of Rotunda-era trade.

External links require an internet connection. Photograph licence details are in image credits. Dates vary between sources where the records disagree.

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