CAUSE IS ALTERED Pubs of Dover

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Barry Smith

Cause is Altered

13-14 Queen Street

The Cause is Altered, date unknown.

Above photo of the Cause is Altered, date unknown.

From the Dover Express 28 March 1969.

It was once a smugglers' haunt

SAD night on Saturday. Not only were they closing down another Dover pub but it was the closure of the town's oldest pub. I managed to get in among the drinkers at the ancient Cause is Altered in Queen Street as the last pints were pulled. And it's not only those who enjoy a pint who were sad to see this pub close down ready for the demolition men who will be making way for a new road.

Take Miss Olive Rookwood, the former teacher at the boys' county school, who now lives at the nearby Battle of Britain Homes. She's no drinker but it made her sad this week to know that yet another old pub had closed.

"It's very, very sad to see these places of historic interest being pulled down. It's really dreadful. And they call it progress," she lamented at her flat.

The date of this now closed hostelry is hard to fix. But there seems no doubt that it was the oldest in town and was probably welcoming customers three hundred years ago.

Like many of these old places the building is surrounded by legend and gossip. They say it used to be the haunt of smugglers and when the licensee Mr. Bourne in the nineteenth century decided to change the house for the better he also altered the name to The Cause is Altered.

For years I was under the impression that the clock face on the ceiling of the public bar, complete with ancient numerals, was a device to tip off smugglers that the Excise men were about.

But no. Now I'm told by Mr. Fred Simpson, of Markland Road - who works for Mackesons, the owners - that the device was a primitive game of chance played by the customers.

Mackesons took The Cause is Altered over when they merged with Fremlins.

Queen Street won't seem the same again. I hope the stone set in the wall commemorating Cow Gate will at least be saved and re-instated when the authorities finally get round to building the York Street road.

Perhaps, despite the frenzy of the years ahead, passers by will have time to stand and stare. And remember the pub. Perhaps.

Above photo of the Cause is Altered side view circa 1970.

Taken from Prince of Wales Sea Training School Society web site.

On the north side at the top of Queen street until it was needlessly destroyed, as it turned out, to make way for the York Street dual carriageway, stood an ancient inn, bearing the curious name "The Cause is Altered." This house was just within Cowgate, and must have been there long before that gate was removed. The name was in bold raised letters over the door, and an old inhabitant told the author that he saw that particular sign fixed there before he went to sea in the year 1826. The sign of this house was originally "The Black Horse," and being situate in a lonely spot on the walls, was a resort of smugglers, but when Mr. Bourne took the house at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he resolved to make a change for the better, and put up the new sign "The Cause is altered."

Information taken from John Bavington-Jones' book "A Perambulation of the Town, Port and Fortress of Dover", 1906. (Reprint in The South Kent Gazette, October 31st, 1979.)

The Cause is Altered public house (pictured right) at the top of Queen Street, was demolished in June 1971 to make way for the York street dual carriageway. Because it was one of Dover's few surviving ancient buildings and probably the oldest in domestic occupation, there was a campaign to save it or preserve a remnant - such as a plaque on the corner which recorded that "Here stood Cow Gate, taken down by order of the Corporation, 1776." Next door was St. Mary's Infants' School which was also demolished.

Known previously as the "Blacksmith's Arms" and later as the "Carpenter's Arms", it was the property of Mackeson at the close.

On the corner with Princes Street, it was licensed prior to 1826 and was said at the end to be at least three hundred years old. It was reputedly part of the local smuggling chain at one time and an underground tunnel was said to connect it with at least one other pub in that connection.

It stood just inside the town wall at Cow Gate and a stone in the wall of the pub informed the public that the gate was removed in 1776.

	Various theories have been advanced concerning the name. Some thought it was changed to appease Cromwell in 1649. Others suggested it marked its end with the smuggling fraternity but perhaps more likely, the name descended from "Cows and Halters". It is fairly certain that it was the "Carpenter's Arms" in 1805
Theories on the change of name. From Country Life 14th August 1969. SIR,-This inn, The Cause is Altered, on the slope of the hills leading up to the Western Heights at Dover, is shortly to be demolished to make room for the new roadway leading from the docks to the A.20. It is believed to be Dover's oldest inn, and much speculation surrounds its unusual name. It is thought by some to have originated from Restoration times, when Dover and east Kent generally, having been very pro-Roundhead, suddenly found that the restored Charles II was to land at Dover and make a triumphant journey through the county. An opportunist landlord wished to make it quite clear that he was now on the popular side. Could this be so; or are there other inns of the same name with a quite different origin? JOHN MANNERING, River House, River, Dover, Kent, From The Dover Mercury 29 October 1998. WE know the name of Dover hostelry the Cause is Altered was changed in 1826 because it had a bad reputation due to its links with smuggling. So the new landlord, Mr Bourne, decided to give it-a new image. I have a list of names of Inns from about 1792. We also know there was a "Blacksmith Arms" in Queen Street in 1824. Mr Bavington Jones in his book on Dover said he was told by a sailor that it was the Black Horse, but there was already an Inn of that name where "The Eagle" now stands. There has been a suggestion it was linked with the Cavaliers and Roundheads, but the change would have needed to be much earlier. I discovered, however, there was a Cause is Altered in Ipswich which could go back to the Civil War period. When visiting that city, walking up a long road, I found the pub which was a fairly modem building and they had changed the name to the Case is Altered, with the sign showing a bewigged judge. In the early 19th century there could have been a steady trade between these two ports and this may have been a suggestion by a regular seafaring customer. Joe Harman.
The last drinks were served on 22 March 1969. Some local groups would have liked the walls left standing but the authorities decided in September 1972 that the whole must come down.

Nineteen-year-old Dixie Smith, daughter of the landlord, pulls a pint ... one of the last. Dover's oldest pub to close DOVER'S oldest public house, the Cause is Altered in - Queen Street, closes its doors for the last time on Monday night (21 March 1969). The building is coming down to make way for the new York Street by-pass. Once the haunt of smugglers the pub used to be The Black Horse but its name was changed in the eighteenth century. Dover citizens and pressure groups tried to save the pub but failed to persuade the planners. Now licensee Mr. Don Smith, who has been at the Cause is Altered for 14 months, is to take another pub at Maidstone. It is hoped to save the ancient stone set in the wall, marking Cowgate, and to reinstate it when York Street is built.

The walls contained two plaques which may well have been preserved. It was said at the time that the site was needed to house one end of a pedestrian bridge and on that assumption the demolition was authorised by Dover Corporation in March 1973; By August of 1991, as I retype this page little of interest has yet materialised on the site.

Above the Cause is Altered almost down 1972.

Taken from Prince of Wales Sea Training School Society web site.

Site of The Cause is Altered in 1973.

From the Dover Express 9th February 1973.

Ancient link with past not worth preserving - say residents

GET rid of them. That's what local people are saying about the remains of the Cause is Altered public house by the side of the York Street trunk road. But there are plans to preserve the walls, and to grass the surrounding area so that people can sit there.

"It will become a public convenience for hitch-hikers," said Mr. George Austin, of the Battle of Britain Homes which stand next to the site.

Putting seats there and grassing the area over will simply be an invitation to them to spend the night there, or use it as a toilet."

Mrs. Bessie O'Connor, who also lives in one of the flats there, thinks the land could be better used by making a pathway down to the new road.

"At the moment, all us old people from these flats have to walk around that site, and then down on to the road.

"It might not be very far if you're young and fit, but when you can't walk very far anyway, it's almost impossible."

Her husband, Mr. Frank O'Connor, is unable to make the journey.

"It would be much better to have a path leading down there on to the pavement. Who wants to remember an old pub anyway? I can't stand the places."

Folkestone Road resident Mr. Herbert Jackson, said he wouldn't mind the walls being preserved if they were original.

"But they're not," he said. "They've been patched up a couple of times, and there's even some brick work in them, so they're not exactly old."

Mrs. O'Connor suggested that if they wanted to mark the spot where the Cow Gate once stood - as a plaque in the pub wall used to do - they should include that on a gate there.

Meanwhile, the subject is likely to be raised again at the next Works Committee meeting of the council.

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