DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Dover, May, 2021.

Page Updated:- Saturday, 01 May, 2021.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1893-

Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club

Open 2020+

Marine Parade

5 Waterloo Crescent

Dover

01304 206262

https://whatpub.com/royal-cinque-ports-yacht-club

Original RCPYC 1893

Above photo, showing the original Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club in 1893.

Original RCPYC view

Above photo showing the view from the balcony, date unknown. Kindly sent by Paul Wells.

Original RCPYC 1945+

Above photo showing the same building just before demolition after WW2. Kindly sent by Paul Wells.

Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club

Above is shown the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club in 2006

 

Not really one for being with public houses, so not in the original Barry Smith's list, but I am adding this one as it does have a long history, although I am still researching.

 

Dover Express 1st August 1941.

At the Dover Licensing Sessions on Monday, the Magistrates’ Clerk said that an application had been received from the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club for permission to close the premises temporarily owing to present conditions-------------

This was allowed.

 

From the Dover Express, 2000

By TERRY SUTTON

Yacht club protests to landlords.

A SENIOR member of Dover's Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club has protested to landlords Dover Harbour' Board claiming that the port authority's property tenants are subsidising dock users.

The club house, which occupies a central position on the sea front, pays £15,500 a year rent.

The harbour board says this is about half the independent rental valuation on the property.

Barry Sheppard has written to Board chairman Adam Broadbent following the consultation meeting held with stakeholders last month.

That meeting heard, that the Harbour Board had a policy of a .six to eight per cent return on its port investments but that there was no such restriction on its financial return on waterfront property.

Mr Sheppard, a Vice chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, believes this policy is flawed. He claims it will restrict the future development of the seafront.

He says: "The opposing policies of running the port on 50 per cent of general commercial rates of return while expecting maximum returns from the property portfolio means that businesses are subsidising the users of the port. The town is being drained of opportunities."

He says the town and port should work together and it was important the whole area should be improved for the common good.

He has sent a copy of his letter to John Prescott, deputy prime minister, who has a hand in the appointment of members of Dover Harbour Board.

Dover Harbour Board's property general manager Bill Fawcus, in response, revealed that a court case is pending to work out an independent rental valuation of the club's premises.

Mr Fawcus emphasised the court case was not a bid to force the club to quit the premises, although the lease had expired.

He said the current independent annual rental valuation on the yacht club premises, as a club, was £33,000 but as offices would be £40,000.

"We want to see the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club to continue and we have made a number of suggestions to assist the club, including the accepted offer of a £12,000 interest-free loan," said Mr Fawcus.

He also revealed that the club was seeking a further three years' agreement at the existing rent which, he says, would, amount to a £50,000 subsidy over the three years.

"But we can't continue to subsidise the club as we have done," says Mr Fawcus.

 

From the Dover Mercury, 17 May, 2001.

Yacht club to close after rent increase

By CLAlRE ROBINSON

Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club 2001

DOVER'S Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club Will close at the end of June.

The decision came after Dover Harbour Board demanded a huge rent increase of nearly £13,000 a year - from £15,000 to £21,725.

The Cinque Ports' commodore, Ken Duprey; said the club could not afford to pay and would close until alternative premises were found.

Deputy commodore Barry Shepherd said: "The club could close indefinitely. Once an association is fragmented it's very difficult to bring it back together again.

"The yacht club IS a huge part of Dover's seafront. It fits in well with the shops, hotel and restaurant, but soon it could all be offices, and the seafront will lose its atmosphere."

The club has been at its premises at Waterloo Crescent, Dover, since 1947. The announcement of its closure comes after a four year wrangle over rent between RCPYC and DHB. The dispute was taken to Canterbury County Court in March, when a final sum was decided.

Mr Duprey said: "This has had a devastating effect on the club. We've had a huge decline in membership and problems in recruiting and maintaining staff. Funds which should have gone into improvements have been spent on the court case.

 "A total blight has been cast over us and we are unable to plan any future. There is continuing concern over the club's fate. These points have been brought to DHB's attention and despite their publicly declared policy to help us survive, their attitude has been uncompromising.

They're only offering us impractical alternatives. "This attitude is even more difficult to understand when the Board, now turning over some £58 million, is dealing with major port users and reducing harbour charges when the companies are faced with Channel Tunnel competition and the loss of duty free."

Bill Fawcus of the harbour board said: "We have provided a variety of options to the club. The rent increase was not set by us, but by the court. We've offered to continue the club in whole or in part, and they could still rent one floor of the premises if they wished.

"The club gets a 40 per cent discount off what would normally be paid and we hope it remains open."

The RCPYC was founded in Dover in 1872 by the Duke of Connaught who was its first commodore for 60 years. The Queen Mother is the club's president and the Duke of Edinburgh its patron. The Duke visited the club last year for the Little Ships memorial trip to Dunkirk.

 

From the Dover Express, 7 August, 2008.

CAMRA TOASTS LIFEBOAT CREW.

CAMRA donation

Donation: Coxswain Stuart Richardson receives CAMRA cash at the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club.

DOVER'S lifeboat has been given a cash boost thanks to the generosity of the district's beer drinkers.

The £500 donation was raised at the Campaign for Real Ale's annual winter festival at Dover town hall in February.

CAMRA members met some of the lifeboat crew at a reception in the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club last month.

But the volunteers very nearly missed the handover because they were out at sea providing assistance to sailors who had got into trouble in the Channel.

Stuart Richardson, coxswain of the Dover lifeboat, said: “It was a bit embarrassing to be late to the presentation but I'm glad we made it eventually.

“I am very pleased the local CAMRA members have chosen to support us so generously.

“I'll be arranging a relief coxswain for next February so I can go to the festival and sample a few ales myself.”

 

From the Dover Mercury, 23 September, 2020.

Club appeal for flagpole history.

A new flagpole is installed at the "Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club," an appeal for information on the history of the previous pole has been made.

Commodore of the Dover club James White and senior trustee Brenda Stewart unveiled a plaque commemorating the new flagpole on Bank Holiday weekend, and despite sailing being postponed members all joined the celebration by having a fun evening in the club house. But this saw the end of an era for the club. Honorary secretary Judith White said: "The previous flag pole was erected in 1947 - an old timber ship’s mast which later rotted over the years, eventually being condemned.

"One theory is that it was removed and restored from the original club house which was bombed during the war. The Gateway Flats now stand on that site. The curator of the "Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club" archives welcomes any further information if anyone one knows what happened."

■ If you have information on the old flagpole, please email honsec@rcpyc.org.uk

 

 

LICENSEE LIST

PODEVIN Joseph George (Secretary) 1899 Kelly's 1899

 

Kelly's 1899From the Kelly's Directory 1899

 

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

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