Brewery Tap — Bear Incident File

Location	53 Tontine Street, Folkestone
Approx. incident date	February 2002, before closing time
Barred status	BARRED FROM CELLAR AND STAGE

Earlier Brewery Tap photograph — Above photo, date unknown, sent to Dover-Kent by Linda Cox.

Brewery Tap in 1976 — Above photograph kindly supplied to Dover-Kent by Jan Pedersen, 1976.

Older view of the Brewery Tap — Above photo sent to Dover-Kent by Chris Excell, date unknown.

Brewery Tap exterior in 2009 — Brewery Tap exterior, Paul Skelton, 27 June 2009.

Brewery Tap tiled frontage in 2009 — Brewery Tap tiled frontage, Paul Skelton, 27 June 2009.

Brewery Tap sign in 2009 — Brewery Tap sign, Paul Skelton, 27 June 2009.

Historical Background

The Brewery Tap is recorded at 53 Tontine Street from 1870. Warren Press states that the building seen in later years was erected in 1877 to replace an earlier public house on the same site. The Dover-Kent list carries the name into the early twenty-first century.

Record note: Dover-Kent Folkestone list and Warren Press, Folkestone Pubs.

Bear Incident File

The Bear arrived through the public entrance but behaved as though emerging from the brewery. He told three customers that he had been sent to “open the second half,” then placed one paw on a barrel and the other over his heart.

Staff prevented him from adjusting the tap. The Bear maintained that the cask was “flat in B minor” and sang one testing note, followed without invitation by Widecombe Fair. He requested one more encore after no first encore had occurred.

Disposition

Refused cellar access permanently. General barring reduced to six months after he returned the spanner, then reinstated when the spanner proved to belong to a nearby bicycle.

CCTV / Lost Tape Note

Cellar camera 2 showed only a stationary barrel and, at intervals, the top of a hat. The tape was placed in a padded envelope but the envelope remains empty.