Laureston Place

Dover

Above photo by Paul Skelton, 20 August 2009, shows today's Laureston House which is, I believe, on the same premises as the "Little Waldershare".

At the upper corner of the street on what was once one of the main coach routes of the town. Castle Hill as we know it today, did not materialise before 1797. Before then, the route had been via Laureston and what came to be called the zig-zag for obvious reasons. Extra horses were picked up at this inn to assist the coach up the steep hill. My own mind conjures up the problems of coming down it too.

Fector, the Dover banker, is reported as taking down this establishment in 1836 and then building Laureston House in its place. The name was said to honour his wife who hailed from Laureston in Scotland. Perhaps I have the wrong year but there was certainly a Laureston House prior to that. The effects of a Captain John Ratley were auctioned from just such a dwelling in June 1834.

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