High Street, its shops banks and trolley buses
The High Street called by locals the top of the town was the heart of Maidstone. It has and had then a Queens monument at the top end and a cannon captured from the Russians in the Crimean war at the bottom end.
The Red Lion stood on the corner of High Street and Week Street; it was also called the Gin Palace.
If trolley buses were going to get into trouble it would usually be here. The reason, I think, is that they picked up passengers outside of the bank, and then had to move over almost three lanes to take the corner into Gabriels Hill. It was quite normal to see the driver and the conductor with the bamboo pole trying to reconnect to the overhead cables.
There were so many shops here that you must forgive me when I omit some. I worked at Joe Lyons corner house in the High Street while attending the
Technical College
I have happy memories of my time at Lyons not that the work was easy but we had a lot of fun. I remember clearing tables, working in the kitchen on the dish washing machine and eventually progressing to the tea machine on the counter.
Oh, joy of joys at last serving the punters. There was a machine we pushed the dirty teapots onto for cleaning which emitted a gush of boiling water. Unfortunately, I sat down on the damn thing by accident, and as you can imagine had to get off smartish, and for the rest of the day walked around like the proverbial ruptured duck.
It is a strange thing that we only laugh at others misfortunes not our own, the girls and boys seemed to think it was amusing though they could see that I was suffering, but certainly not in silence.
Opposite Lyons teashop stood another cafeteria above a bakers, I can’t remember the name of it (was it Telfords or the Carlton), I’m sure someone will remind me later. Nearly next-door was a record shop where us teenagers would meet on Saturdays to listen to the latest 45 records. If you were really flushed, you could buy a new Dansette record player.
Photo courtesy of KFRS Museum
If you look up at the building on the corner of rose yard you will see ornamental roses, this is a reminder that the Rose Inn stood on this site many years ago. This was the first brick built house in the High Street.
This is a view of the other end of Rose Yard where it meets Earl Street the building on the right was Honnors the seed merchants. You can still see the doors on the first floor level where grain and seed would have been lifted into the store. On the opposite side where the bank stands today is the original site of the Wardona or Regal cinema. Cinemas
My first banking or should I say overdraft was with Martins Bank (they had to work hard to keep my business). This bank stood in the lower part of the High Street opposite the cannon, and was still open for business until the takeover by Barclays in the sixties.
It is rumoured that under the High Street, there are a winding mass of tunnels, maybe there are, but most towns have the same rumour, I think it just heightens the mystery that surrounds old towns.
Who will ever forget the problems that the flooding in the sixties brought. It did bring the businesses to their knees but as a youth it was exciting.
Photo courtesy of KFRS Museum
quin Country: Australia Maidstone I remember it well: we had a bad habit at Maidstone tech college of playing up in about 1968 we painted the canon in the High St white!!!! we also went out one night to the end of the bypass and found some road works stuff. so we blocked the bypass put up a detour sign drove down it and blocked the other end near the Great Danes (J Arthur Rank) and put all the traffic thru the town... for about 12 hours . hope I don’t get caught. GOTCHA!!!!!!!!
David Severn
Maidstone I remember it well: Broadmead Record Shop This shop was the best place to buy gramaphone records, it had booths at one side to hear the music. The staff were helpful, in particular one girl who was very knowledible and so helpful, really knew the groups, I bought my first LP there in 1962 it was the Shadows although my taste did develop later on. Buying music is easy now on the internet, but never as good as having a real and helpful person.
Hope this is in the right section David (and what was wrong with the Shadows anyway)
Doug Lindsay Maidstone I remember it well: Seeing the picture of the floods in the High Street reminds me that in the 1960 flood I was working at Chiesmans then and we had about 3 feet of water in the basement for several days after that flood so we couldn't work down there and the whole department had to be re-decorated afterwards, the staff gents toilet was down there too so that wasn't available either, we had to use the undergound public toilets outside under the Cannon traffic island, anyone remember them? Also Maidstone featured on the front page of the Daily Mirror the day after the flood, a view looking towrards the river with a Loose Trolley Bus on the front of a national daily paper!!! Wow, how extraordinary was that!! I recall the raised walkways provided by the Council to get people to work and to and fro to the station and numerous vehicles that came to grief as the water was very deep each side of the bridge and had to be towed out. We had another flood in 1968 which was not quite as bad, but again the High Street was under water and I had a friend who worked nearer the river at 'House of Carpets' and his car was submerged at the rear of the shop, it was an old Ford Zepher, but we got it out after a few days and lo and behold after towing it along Fairmeadow a few times it started!!! It smelled rather badly though until it was totally dried out as you can imagine!! It was this flood (1968) that I recall seeing furniture from Len Cabinet Works floating along Palace Avenue and into Bishops Way before flowing off the edge into the Medway as the river Len had swollen to such a degree it swept right through Len Cabinet Works and Marchant & Tubb's premises in Water Lane and Granada Street quite an event!
Doug Lindsay Maidstone I remember it well: High Street. Anyone recall the old coaching lane up beside the Rose Inn towards the bottom of the High Street, I believe it was called Rose Yard. It was there that a friend of mine printed the 'Stop Press' on the London Evening paper. Can't remember if it was The Star, The Evening News or The Evening Standard, yes, there were once three evening papers!! Each edition was put through a machine to print the very latest headlines or race results before they were distributed to the newpaper vendors which, if memory serves me, were located outside Chiesmans in the High Street, outside Ansteys opposite the Granada, outside Woolworths in Week St and outside the East & West stations. This activity is another piece of history that no doubt took place in hundreds of towns up and down the country.
Enid Sharp Maidstone I remember it well: Lyons Corner House at the top of High Street where all the cyclist used to meet before going cycling to the coast or out into the country. The two largest clubs were the C.T.C and the San Fairy Ann.
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