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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!!!!!!!!
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