Another look at Folkestone... sites with exciting redevelopment potential.

In my previous post about our stay in Folkestone, I alluded to the fact that our accommodation wasn't as salubrious as we had become used to during our trip.

We stayed at the Carlton Hotel in the Leas area; the hotel is described as a charming Victorian era building and reviews on both TripAdvisor and Expedia are mixed...some people rave about how wonderful it is and some people wrote quite derogatory comments. Very confusing!

The Carlton Hotel...looks like some painting and maintenance being done. Our room was in that middle bit; top left hand window of that section...

 So when we found the hotel we continued driving around the block to see if we could find the 'free carpark' that was advertised. We found the back entrance and DH proceeded to reverse the car into a spot...suddenly a man in a car behind us starting beeping his horn and gesticulating wilddly at us to move. DH put the window down and the man explained that the space was designated for ambulance parking...huh? Hotels have their own ambulances on call now do they? Obviously an invisible sign was somewhere showing this. 

There was already one ambulance parked there in the next space. What the? The man then proceeded to park and went along the broken-up pathway to the front of the hotel...turns out he was an employee of the hotel. 

When we ended up at Reception, for the first time in our trip we didn't have to fill out a form???? We were told that our room was on the third floor but the lift only went to the second floor. That was okay as some places we stayed at didn't have lifts at all...

When we opened the door to our room, the stench of stale tobacco smoke assailed our nostrils. Did it matter that DH had booked a non smoking room? probably not in the eyes of the management. 

The very modern TV???

The holey curtains which reeked of cigarette smoke...

The grubby bathroom...

The shower that didn't work but which managed to spit out rust particles rather than water drops...

The toilet lid had so much crud on it that we left it open rather than touch it...eewww wah!

The double room that had twin single beds...

The linen on the beds seemed clean but I slept with my coat as a blanket rather than let the hotel blankets touch my body...

We were booked in for 3 nights...DH was devastated...but we had paid up front so we were staying. The room was only a base; we would be out most of the day. We bought some large bottles of water  to boil for coffee and tea because of the old water pipes and the rust/dirt. But I boiled some tap water first to scald the cups and saucers. Hand antiseptic gel makes an excellent surface cleaner if you're stuck with grotty basins and bench top and we pretended it was a garret flat where some starving artist created beautiful paintings at the turn of the 19th century. I also did a 'Homes under the Hammer' reno in my imagination...the place had great potential. lol. 

(Luckily my Vodafone dongle still had credit as there was no free wifi available at that level of the hotel)

The other site I am writing about, is marked for demolition but the GFC has impacted on such big projects I guess. It's the old Folkestone Harbour Station, which we explored on our visit to the harbour area. This station is quite historical; the first Folkestone Harbour station opened in 1849. It was a busy station as boat trains operated between Folkestone and France. Part of the station's history includes the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. But it's a sad sight now... The tunnel under the English Channel, which opened in 1994 severely impacted on Folkestone when ferry operators moved to other ports in the South East. The last regular passenger services through this station were in 2001.

The old swing bridge area which allowed the trains to continue to the South pier...

The old station...

The top of the hotel across from the harbour, that is shaped like a ship, can be seen in the middle of the photo...

 Grass growing on the tracks...concrete sleepers stacked beside the line...

In all this decay though, we found a very interesting sculpture; literally in the middle of the tracks!

 Here is the sign that explained what it was all about...the figures had the most beautifully detailed  faces...

At the end of the station was a gateway which led to the old abandoned pier...we had seen lots of people carrying fishing rods heading through the gate. Apparently if you wanted to fish, it was 4 Pounds, but if you were just having a look, it was free...so DH went out and up the steps to the old pier...what's left of it anyway.

Great views though...

The Folkestone Lighthouse can be glimpsed in this photo...

The internet sites that I've looked through suggest that much of this area will be replaced by up to 1000 houses and various commercial premises. 

We loved exploring Folkestone and hope that the plans for rejuvenation, gentrification etc are able to proceed. 

The last image is taken from a website showing views of a pier when this area was in its heyday...

But it might be a good idea to avoid some of the cliffs in the area if this sign is anything to go by...

  

  

Folkestone, Kent...

Folkestone is a town which overlooks the English Channel and DH and I stayed there as a frugal alternative to accommodation in  Dover. We would later regret this decision but I will write about this in another post. Suffice to say that 'one can't win 'em all'...and that exercising the skill of finding humour in all situations and maintaining that sense of humour 'keeps you young ish'! lol
We stayed on the street which runs beside the cliffs of the landmark known as the Leas, which has magnificent views of the English Channel.

Obviously a fair bit of money has been spent on this area of Folkestone as the facilities for families/day trippers and tourists were extensive. DH and I turned left from where we were staying but to the right led to cafes and a lovely bandstand...here is an image of that, taken from the internet at this website.

There are a few paths on the Leas, but we stayed on the top one and worked our way down to the centre of town...still at the Leas, we noticed this old funicular which must be wonderful for those people at the base of the cliffs who would like a quicker way back to the top...

(Before we left Folkestone we also took a photo of the funicular from the bottom of the cliff...)

But back to our walk...
We turned left at this statue as there were barriers up around some roadworks...

We wandered around the winding streets...I noticed what looked like a person sitting on the roof of a building...

That brick building there...

We asked one of the shopkeepers if there was a story about the sculpture of a woman wearing togs and a bathing cap, sitting on the edge of the roof.

He said that an artist used to have a shop/studio in the building and had actually made 5 sculptures of people sitting  up there on the roof. Our informant said the other 4 had 'fallen off' which was a bit disturbing perhaps??? lol. Any way the artist had long since left the area, whomever he might have been.
Our walk then took us past houses and eventually we walked down some steep steps and walked along to the harbour area...

 To the right of the photo you can see some white cliffs...

On the left of the photo is the historical Martello Tower of Folkestone

Zoom in a bit now...

Looking inland from the harbourside there are some wonderful views of rather elaborate looking buildings...

And beside the harbour is this ship shaped hotel complex...

So even though Folkestone was really just a 'dormitory town' for our trip to Dover Castle, there will be another post about this town, so I can show some of the other photos we took. A bit like a compare/contrast type of exercise :-) 

Update...

Most days on this trip I upload photos we've taken during the day's sightseeing to the iPad and also most nights I work on blog posts. The tiresome thing I find about blogging with the iPad is inserting the photos I want to use, into the blog template... When the photo icon is clicked the photo 'montage' that pops up has the pics in a tiny sized formatt. Also photos have to be inserted one at a time. But with trial and error I can honestly say that it has got easier with practice! Most evenings I also write some blog posts and I have a number in draft form ready to publish. I do that so I can delete photos stored on the iPad and thus avoid those messages informing me that there is not enough 'storage space'. The images are still on the SD card and will get copied over to our portable hard drive when we get home. 

So having said all that, I will now get on with this post...:-)

The last post published was about our visit to Newcastle. Since then we have travelled south to York where we stayed for 3 nights. On the way to York we stopped at Whitby and Scarborough. After York we  travelled to Folkestone which we used as our base to travel to Dover Castle. Today we left Folkestone and travelled to Canterbury in the morning so we could attend the Easter Day service at the Cathedral there.

We got there very early as the service that we were attending was not until 11 am. However by being so early (9.45) we were able to park in the Cathedral grounds...for free!!

The staff supervising the parking suggested we walk through the grounds to the coffee shop near the entrance. Along the way I stopped to pat/scratch behind the ears the Cathedral cat?...a beautiful tortoise-shell cat. 

A better view of the Cathedral than in the last photo...

And what a lovely streetscape we found near the coffee shop...

Decorated shop windows...

We returned to the Cathedral long before 11 (10.15) as we could see the crowds of people walking in the gate...

I noticed people taking photos before the service so I thought I would too...I snapped this photo and then felt a hand on my shoulder...it was one of the Cathedral volunteers...oops? no photos please during the service ! I had had no intention of taking photos during the service but wanted this one photo showing people half an hour before the service. People are so generous...one man in front of me offered to email me  his photo as he thought I hadn't managed to take the photo...but I'm quick! 

The service was magnificent with the Archbishop of Canterbury taking the service. ( the Archbishop of Canterbury is like the Anglican Church's version of the Pope, even though the Queen, as the monarch, is the head of the church...confusing right?) 

The choir and the music were magnificent; the choir sang all the anthems which were in Latin...High Church you see. The BBC filmed this Sung Eucharist Service, so it was quite overwhelming all this pomp and pageantry...very different from our little parish church, that's for sure! 

We went out the West Door and there was the Archbishop of Canterbury shaking hands. I was wearing my parish name tag and said to him that we had come all the way from Australia...he said dryly that he had noticed...I was in a panic as I couldn't remember the form of address to an Archbishop..but 'Your Grace' sounded right! :-) 

The Archbishop is still at the West Door shaking hands...

After Canterbury we headed off for London, where we started this holiday on March 19. It had been raining lightly in Canterbury but by the time we got to London the rain was heavier and it was quite misty...you might have to squint to see those tall buildings in the distance as we drove into London. 

Approaching the Blackwell Tunnel...

We checked into our hotel where we will stay for the next 3 nights. Then on Wednesday we will head to France on the Eurostar. The hotel is in Kings Cross and is in walking distance of Kings Cross/ St Pancras Station where we will catch the train...so after we checked in we walked to the station to see where we will leave from...

The station is very swish with lots of cafés and shops...and there were some entertainers who were playing pianos...and they were great too!

At one end there was this guy...

And at the other end were these 2! And then they swapped ends! The 2 young boys played honky tonk style and the other man played Beatles songs...including Imagine, one of my all time favourites.

Satisfied that we knew where to come on Wednesday, we then caught a train to Leicester Square. We bought tickets to a show tomorrow night, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring Robert Lindsay. Then we wandered around..

Nelson' Column in Trafalgar Square...

The National Gallery...l

DH suggested we walk down Pall Mall...

We noticed some vintage cars there...

Then we noticed people dressed in 'olden days' garb. It was a film set and we watched them doing the last takes for the day...

These 2 were in the scene...the girl had to chase the girl dressed in male clothing...here they waiting for the cue...after 2 takes, the director was happy and everyone started packing up...

The vintage cars being driven away...Admiralty Gate in the background...

On the way to the station we visited the Horse Guards. Lots of puddles at that complex !! 

The rest of our stay in London will probably be going to more museums...well DH deserves to do the things that he likes best occasionally...after all I got to see the Falkirk Wheel, The Liberty Shop and Portwenn didn't I? Lol