From the Dover Express and East Kent Intelligencer, 10 December, 1864.

STREET ACCIDENT

One day in the early part of the week a horse attached to a light wagon belonging to Messrs. Lukey and Son, took fright as it was driven along Priory Street, and running against a gas lamp overturned the wagon, smashing a great portion of its contants.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, 20 March 1942.

DEATH OF Mr. JOHN LUKEY.

We sincerely regret to record the death, in his 74th year, after a short and sudden illness, of Mr. John Lukey, Managing Director of Messrs. Lukey & Sons Ltd. Though a Folkestone man by birth, he had been long resident in Dover, and was keenly interested in its prosperity. Last week he seemed in quite normal health, but on Saturday he had a serious attack of heart trouble. He leaves a widow and daughter (who is in South Africa) to mourn his loss. The funeral took place on Thursday, the body being cremated at the Kent Crematorium, at Charing. The Rev. D. H. Bowen officiated, and the mourners present were:- Mr. F. Lukey and Mr. H. Lukey (brothers), Miss Lukey (sister), Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Apps (brother-in-law and sister). Also present were: Mr. W. M. Lumsden, Mr. F. Axford, P Fagg and H. Saunders (staff), Nurse brown, Mr. A. C. Leney, Mr. Vernon Shone. Floral tributes were sent as follows:- With love, Dolly, Peter and Bull,: Mac and Jean; Herbert, Fred, Edith and Ada; Mr. and Mrs. Victor Smith; Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Weston, jun.; Mr. Philip T. Hart, O.B.E.; Messrs. Thompson and Son, Walmer; Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Allioson; Mr. and Mrs. D. I. L. Bradley, Whitfield; Directors, Management and Staff, Esplanade Hotel; Business Group No. 4; Edward Wright and Son; Mr. and Mrs. J. Weston, snr., Management and Staff, Shakespeare Buffet and Crypt; Committee and Members, St. Margaret's Bay Golf Club; Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club; Mr. and Mrs. Saunders and Ivy; Mr. S. F. Harman; Major and Mrs. La Trobe Foster; Office Staffs, 4, Bench St., and 9 High St.; Nora, and all at 28, Milner Rd., Elvington; Mr. and Mrs. Whorwell; Continental Express; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wind;Messrs. Mackeson and Co., Ltd.; Edith Pratt and Peggy Bryant; G. T. Finney; Charles H. Tyrell; his Staff. The funeral arrangements were by Mr. H. J. Sawyer, of 85, High Street, Dover.

A correspondent writes:- "By the passing of John Lukey, Dover has lost one of its grandest men. His outstanding qualities of sincerity, kindness and generosity, endeared him to everyone. Absolutely selfless, his unostentatious acts of kindness were manifold.- M.F."

From the Dover Express, 14 December, 1951.

LUKEY'S BUY THE SHAKESPEARE

A Link with a Century Ago.

Over a hundred years ago, top-hatted, John Lukey, side-whiskered and sober-faced, was mine host of the "Shakespeare" Hotel in Bench Street, one of the renowned old Dover hostelries which had its own place in local history many years before that.

Last week the local firm of John Lukey and Son, well-known wine merchants, renewed the family link with that old hotel when they bought the "Shakespeare," the "Crypt" Restaurant and adjoining premises for £10,000.

The amusement arcade and dancing studio, all part of the lot which was knocked down to their five-figure bid, were unheard of when John Lukey, founder of the present firm, ran the "Shakespeare." The eight, self-contained flats, which extend above the building, though, were probably part of the old hotel.

Uni-leteral parking, like he atom bomb, was a thing of the future, and John Lukey, as a fly proprietor and owner of livery stables, was more troubled by the state of the roads than any white lines painted on them. Whatever the state of the roads, John Lukey and his customers must have accepted it, for it is on record than one morning they gathered outside the hotel to give him a send-off when he set out to trot a horse to Canterbury in two hours. Drawing a high dogcart with three men up, the horse carried on to the agreed winning post in ten minutes under the time to win a £5 wager.

In 1836, alterations in Bench Street had brought about the destruction of an old tower which had stood near the "Shakespeare" for centuries past, and underneath which the "Crypt" was discovered. The actual origin of this structure is obscure, but it is said to have been used as a place of refuge by the Huguenots who were then fleeing from their own country. Many years were to elapse before their compatriots, probably no less harassed by modern travelling condition, were to use the "Crypt" as a place of refreshment on their way to the South Bank site.

For some time John Lukey used it as an underground store and bottling plant for his hotel, before founding the present firm in 1853. Not until 1921, with Mr. Shone as architect and Mr. Barwick as builder, was it renovated and eventually opened as a restaurant. During the examinations then carried out, a quantity of Flemish tiles were unearthed and subsequently, used to construct the present "Shakespeare" frontage.

Until the alterations were made about 1922 which divided the building into flats, a bar and a restaurant, it had remained a family hotel under various proprietors, the last being Mr. W. Morris who was there for many years.

Since then the name of the "Crypt" has become literally world-famous, and during the last war it was the off-duty meeting place for thousands of servicemen, coming from every nation. Just about a century before that when John Lukey was running the "Shakespeare" Hotel, his establishment was used as a mess by the officers of the numerous regiments which had congregated at Dover prior to service in the Crimean war.

Many of the wartime children preferred to use the "Crypt" as a shelter when bombs and shells were bursting nearby. "They always said it was safer than a shelter," says Mr. Percy D Lukey, Director and Secretary of the firm, "or else it was just a lot nicer place to be bombed in."

The great-grandchildren of John Lukey will continue to run the "Shakespeare" and "Crypt" as well as the wine merchant's business which he founder a few yards away in a building which has its own history, being reputedly a vicarage of St. Mary's Church. Its area of business extends far beyond Dover, and beyond the borders of Kent. The firm which had its start in the mind of a man who bottled wines in the "Crypt" now extends throughout the Home Counties served largely by its own fleet of motor lorries.