DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Canterbury, May, 2022.

Page Updated:- Sunday, 08 May, 2022.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1866-

Three Kings

Latest 1868+

4 St Margaret's Street

Canterbury

Former Three Kings 1939

Above photo circa 1939, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Canterbury O S Map 1874

Above map 1874 identified by Rory Kehoe.

Three Kings 2019

Above photo March 2019, kindly taken and sent by Rory Kehoe.

A coin bearing the letters EW has been found from the "Three Kings," date as yet unknown.

Three Kings Token

Above token said to be dated between 1648-72, kindly sent by Mark Reed.

 

I believe the full address would have been St. Margaret's Street.

 

Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, Monday 11 September 1865.

Application for New Licences.

Mr. George Pontoon, landlord of the "Three Kings" beer shop, St Margaret's, made an application for a spirit licence, but the magistrates refused to grant it.

 

Canterbury Journal, Kentish Times and Farmers' Gazette 15 September 1866.

At the City Petty Sessions on Thursday, it being the annual licensing day, the following applications for new licenses were refused:-

G. Ponton, the "Three Kings," St Margaret's,

There are now 168 licensed houses in Canterbury besides beer shops and refreshment houses."

 

From the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald. 14 September 1867. Price 1d.

ANNUAL LICENSING DAY.

Thursday week was the day fixed for renewing licenses to innholders and hearing applications for new licenses. The numerous innkeepers in the city were instructed to attend at the Guildhall at eleven o'clock, and by that hour the court and its approaches were thronged by them. There was a general complaint made that this class of persons should be kept out of their business for so many hours—the actual work of renewing the grants not commencing until half-past two o'clock; the professional gentlemen who were engaged to support the applications for new licenses having had the usual courtesy shown them by the magistrates of having their cases heard before other business was despatched. Details of the business appended:—

Mr. White, from the office of Messrs. Farley, Callaway, and Farley, objected to a license being granted to Mr. Ponton to sell excisable liquors at the "Kings," in St. Margaret's. He stated that the population of the district was a resident one, and including as it did persons who carried on extensive businesses it was very undesirable that the application should be granted. Besides the premises did not contain accommodation other than for "tipplers."

Application for license granted.

 

From the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald. 30 November 1867. Price 1d.

George Ponton was summoned for having in his house (“The Three Kings”) on the 29th of October, a half-pint measure, and others of smaller capacity deficient.

Defendant pleaded guilty; and was fined 2s. 6d. and 9s. costs.

 

No.4 was a very old building which, for the first half of the 19th century, operated as a bakery run by Southee Ware. George Ponton took over No.4 in the mid 1860s and in 1866 applied for a beer licence but was turned down. He applied again in 1867 and this time was successful, so the "Three Kings" commenced trading, albeit briefly. The "Three Kings" appears on the (attached) 1874 OS map as a PH but probably, by this time, it had closed. There is some indication that No.4 re-opened as a bakery, again all but briefly. What is certain, is that No.4 was demolished c.1880 in order to make way for the current 1882 building, designed by John Green Hall and used by him as his architectural practice until his death in 1887 aged 52. His partner, Mr W. Jennings, continued to use No.4 as an architectural practice for some years. It's now (2019) a coffee shop and pastry restaurant.
 

LICENSEE LIST

PONTON George 1865-Sept/1866 (license refused) Canterbury Journal

PONTON G 1868+ Greens Canterbury Directory 1868

 

Canterbury JournalCanterbury Journal, Kentish Times and Farmers' Gazette

Greens Canterbury Directory 1868Greens Canterbury Directory 1868

 

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