DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Friday, 13 August, 2021.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1832-

Tiger's Head

Open 2020+

Watts Lane

Chislehurst Common

020 8467 3070

https://www.chefandbrewer.com/pubs/kent/tigers-head/

https://whatpub.com/tigers-head

Tiger's Head 1934

Above photo 1934. Kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Vending machine 1955

Above photo, 1955, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. Showing what was Billed as "the future" the auto-barmaid dispensed Light Ale, IPA, or Lager for 2 bob (10p) per half pint bottle!

Tiger's Head 2018

Above photo 2018.

Tiger's Head sign 2018

Above sign 2018.

 

Project 2014 has been started to try and identify all the pubs that are and have ever been open in Kent. I have just added this pub to that list but your help is definitely needed regarding it's history.

As the information is found or sent to me, including photographs, it will be shown here.

Thanks for your co-operation.

I have also listed a "Tiger's Head" at Foots Cray, a "Tiger's Head" at Eltham, and a "Tiger's Head" at Bromley.

 

Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser - Tuesday 29 November 1892.

Chislehurst.

It having been reported to the committee that the fire engine had no proper shelter, it was resolved to move the fire station to the common, and to find a site for a shelter behind the "Tigers Head" public house, and Canon Murray undertook to gain the consent of the conservators to give him a site, and asked the authority to apply to the Local Government Board for the loan of £200 to meet the cost of erecting the proposed shelter, and that they be authorised to employ an architect to prepare plans, &c,. for the shelter. These minutes were confirmed.

Old Fire Station

Above photo, date unknown, showing the old fire station.

 

From the Barclay, Perkin's Anchor Magazine - Volume 14, No.6, June 1934.

The "Tiger's Head" very ably run by out tenants, Mr and Mrs King, is essentially an inn of the olde worlde type and caters very largely for the residents of Chislehurst, who apparently prefer Mrs King's cooking to their own. She was at one time in the service of the Danish Legation.

The bedrooms are always let and in great demand. That wonderful young Irishman, Jack Doyle, the boxer has been living there recently and he speaks most highly of the "Tiger's Head" and Mrs King's excellent food. Mushrooms on toast have always a prominent place on the menu at the "Tiger's Head" hotel. These edibles come from the Chislehurst Caves, where there is a vast and growing colony of them. How they first got into the caves is revealed in the story of the three City Don Quixotes. When the financial slump caused an economic wave in City offices, three young bachelors decided that they could not keep their jobs while married men were being dismissed. So they handed in their resignations and set about creating an industry. One of them heard about mushroom-growing in the catacombs of Paris and it seemed to him that Chislehurst caves were as good as the catacombs any day. He found it easy enough to secure a lease of the caves but he could not use the entrance because it belonged to somebody else. So he and his partners dug their way through the chalky soil until they ran into one of the tunnels. Beds were prepared, mushroom spawn was bought and the growers got going. Imagine these three enterprising youngsters - their names are Gardner, Lovesly and Gush - getting up at dawn to see how their crop yielded. Imagine their disappointment when they saw no more than a few parched yellow fungi sticking miserably out of their beds. That happened several mornings. It nearly put an end to the venture. The trouble was that there was no ventilation: the air did not move in those tunnels. So they gave up growing and started digging again. They dug a great hole which became a pit and called it a ventilation shaft. Coke fire was ignited at the bottom of the well and this caused the hot air to rise up the shaft, thereby creating the much-needed air current. Back they went to growing and the experiment worked like magic, for when they went back to the caves next morning, they found thousands of healthy and respectable-looking mushrooms. Since then, the same has happened every morning. The normal yield is two hundred pounds daily. The three one-time City clerks have since formed a company under the title Kent Mushrooms Limited and they are gratified to find that there is more in the caves of Chislehurst than there was in the City offices.

(As of January 2021 Kent Mushrooms Ltd is still trading, with a Mr Gardner still at the helm. Rory Kehoe.)

 

LICENSEE LIST

CHANDLER Joseph 1832-34+ Pigot's Directory 1832-34

KIRK Thomas B 1851+ (widower age 61 in 1851Census)

SUTTON Robert 1858+

ROOTS William 1861-62+ (age 33 in 1861Census)

MITCHELL Thomas 1874+ (also jobmaster)

BOLGER Horace L 1891+ (age 60 in 1891Census)

MATTHEWS James Albert 1903+ Kelly's 1903

HAYDEN Robert Frank 1913+

FINCHAM Joseph 1918-22+

KING Frank B 1930-38+

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

 

Pigot's Directory 1832-34From the Pigot's Directory 1832-33-34

Kelly's 1903From the Kelly's Directory 1903

CensusCensus

 

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

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