DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Dartford, May, 2022.

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 04 May, 2022.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest ????

Fox and Hounds Inn

Open 2020+

201 Lowfield Street

Dartford

01322 284661

https://whatpub.com/fox-hounds

Fox and Hounds pre 1930s

Above photo, pre 1930s, kindly sent by Michael Norman.

Fox and Hounds pre 1930s

Above photo, pre 1930s, kindly sent by Michael Norman.

Fox and Hounds 2014

Above photo 2014 by Brian Chadwick Creative Commons Licence.

Fox and Hounds sign 1991Fox and Hounds sign 2012

Above sign left August 1991, sign right, February 2012.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

 

Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser 08 September 1857.

DARTFORD AND THE VALE OF DARENTH.

TOWN HALL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 29.

Before Sir P. H. Dyke, Bart., O. Smith, Esq., and H. Johnstone, Esq.

This being the annual licensing meeting, their worships granted renewals to all the existing houses in this division.

NEW APPLICATIONS.

James Mitchell, of the "Fox and Hounds" beershop, Lowfield-street, Dartford, again made application for a spirit license, this being the third time.

Mr. Gibson attended on behalf of applicant.

The grounds set forth in the memorial, which was numerously signed by nearly all the gentry and inhabitants in that locality, was to the effect that the house (if licensed) would afford great accommodation to persons in the immediate neighbourhood, that It was situated in one of the principal thoroughfares leading from Famingham to Dartford; and that, within the last year or so, the population had greatly increased, there being upwards of 70 new houses built round the locality, and the nearest licensed house was a quarter of a mile off.

The Bench, after some consideration, granted the license.

 

See Dartford Map 1905.

 

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Secret Drinker, 27 January 2020.

Secret Drinker at the Fox & Hounds pub, Lowfield Street, Dartford.

Weaving through the smokers who were out front en masse and ignoring the jibes specially saved up for any non-local daring to enter, I stepped gingerly into the Fox & Hounds in Dartford.

I felt I’d taken a step back in time – to the days when you smelt the pub carpet before you noticed the pattern and heard the punters cursing before you got through the door.

Feeling overdressed in jeans and trainers, I instantly regretted not pulling on a pair of tracky bottoms and a paint-spattered T-shirt.

Now, don’t get me wrong, nothing in this report should be taken as a negative – this is a pub with an important historic role, it will remind you of everything a pub was and needed to be in the 1970 or 1980s.

Okay, no trendy grey or olive green paint, no food, no delicacy and certainly no carefully positioned frippery (fake books, dodgy prints of neighbouring buildings, piles of logs that will never be burned) but real, down-to-earth earthy folks who care deeply about their local and the fact that their pub is still thriving against all odds.

A sign on one door read ‘private party’ but a gravelly voiced landlady said it should be ignored and was only a ruse to keep certain folks out and the pub dogs, a pair of chow chows, contained. In the same breath Tracey told me the white was perfectly safe but I should beware the black one. I played safe and gave both Ruby and Roxy a wide berth.

Fox and Hounds bar 2020

The pub has parking, a pool table and shows Sky Sports.

The front bar had been cleared out, apart from the dog bowls, chews and a massive lead to make space for a singer but sadly we missed her performance.

There was a vacuum cleaner on charge in this empty front bar and two more stood in the back bar, strange given the carpet didn’t look as if it had seen a hoover for months!

We tried pints of Old Peculier, at 5.6%, but the beer lived up to its name and wasn’t drinkable. Barmaid Rach said she had feared it might not be ‘quite right’ as earlier pints had also been questioned.

We shifted to alternative drinks – the big favourite here was Stella in bottles, on offer for £1.75 – there were boxes of the stuff stacked up in reserve.

But the back bar, now without a party, was filling up so, drinks in hand, we headed into the even grubbier back bar and the cacophony of general noise and specific blaspheming.

We ignored the dartboards and jukebox (free Thursday and Sunday from 2pm to 6pm) but were encouraged to challenge the locals at pool.

This corner of the pub was corralled and controlled by keen pool player and fiercely-loyal local Ron.

Before our showdown on the baize I visited the gents, which was generally fine but had a large hole on the right hand side of urinal three– maybe someone tried tunnelling out? Either way, you could hear everything from the bar in here.

Back in the bar another colourful local, Care Bear, and his equally colourful girlfriend had joined us and Ron kissed him through his beard.

Fox and Hounds gents 2020

The toilets need a bit of repair work.

Other fascinating characters in this throwback bar were a monster of a guy visiting from Turks and Caicos, an incredibly tired and emotional Kiki and her other half who turned down the chance to walk her home for another free pint.

Ninety five per cent of punters smoke, most out behind the pub in the evening, and when we waved goodbye the waft was unmistakable.

Not a pub for the faint-hearted, but a fascinating look back across four decades with some ferociously honest, ferociously drunk, decent folk.

DECOR ★★

DRINK ★★

PRICE ★★★★

ATMOSPHERE ★★★★★

STAFF ★★★★

 

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Secret Drinker, 6 April 2020.

Secret Drinker looks back at his 10 worst pubs across Kent.

It’s almost a year since I landed the best job in the world and I’ve been travelling around Kent ever since discovering the very best, and worst, pubs right around the county.

Fortunately the majority of boozers I’ve been lucky enough to visit have been great, but some, sadly, have been found wanting.

I can only ever report exactly what I find at a given moment in time and I realise a fly-on-the-wall review can’t possibly take into account everything going on in a pub. - and many of these pubs may well have improved since my visit.

But, I was tasked with discovering the good, the bad and the ugly – and, in my humble opinion on the day, these are the 10 worst boozers I’ve visited...

8. If you’re overdressed in jeans and trainers and the punters start swearing at you before you’ve even got through the door, you need to be made of stern stuff. Weaving through the smokers to get into the Fox & Hounds in Dartford you could smell the carpet before you noticed the pattern. If the barmaid tells you she thinks there ‘something not right’ about the pint she’s serving you as she serves it, then it’s not a good start. The locals might love this boozer is stuck in the 1970s but someone had tried to escape by tunnelling their way out of the gents. Cheap bottled Stella is the drink of choice.

 

LICENSEE LIST

MITCHELL James 1857-62+ (age 50 in 1861Census)

MITCHELL Ann (widow) 1871+ (age 59 in 1871Census)

FOLEY Patrick 1878+

ROPER Lancelot 1881+ (age 24 in 1881Census)

TASKER A 1882+

MAY S Mrs 1903+ Kelly's 1903

KEARNEY William 1913+

JASPER Arthur Alex 1918+

WILLIAMS Charles H 1922-30+

WALLER Charles John 1938+

HUNT M C 1988-90+

https://pubwiki.co.uk/FoxHoundsInn.shtml

 

Kelly's 1903From the Kelly's Directory 1903

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-

TOP Valid CSS Valid XTHML