Folkestone Town Hall

Folkestone Town Hall — also known as the Guildhall — played two distinct roles in the history of the Folkestone-Hythe Operatic and Dramatic Society (FHODS). In the immediate post-war period from 1947, it served as one of a small group of civic venues used by the society for dramatic productions. Later, following the closure and demolition of the Pleasure Gardens Theatre in the 1960s, the Town Hall took on renewed significance as one of the larger spaces in which FHODS staged its grand-scale operatic and musical productions at a time when the society had no suitable permanent home for such work.

Background

Folkestone Town Hall, situated on Guildhall Street in the centre of Folkestone, is a Grade II listed building and one of the town's most prominent civic landmarks. It is the only building in Folkestone constructed entirely in Portland stone, a reflection of the town's growing prosperity and ambition in the Victorian era.

Folkestone's municipal history stretches back to the medieval period, when a guildhall on the corner of Church Street and Rendezvous Street served as the centre of local administration, complete with a ground-floor market arcade, a first-floor assembly room, and a lock-up for petty criminals. That building was rebuilt in the seventeenth century and eventually demolished in 1840, after which civic leaders temporarily occupied Cistern House, leased from the Earl of Radnor. In the early 1850s a decision was made to build a purpose-designed replacement on the same site.

The foundation stone of the current building was laid on 17 May 1859. It was designed by Joseph Messenger in the Italianate style and built by contractor John Edwards in Portland stone at a cost of £8,683. Following structural difficulties related to an underground drain, Messenger resigned and Messrs Whichford and Blandford of Maidstone took over the design. The building was officially opened by the mayor on 18 May 1861 with a concert that included a violin solo by H. Weist Hill of the Royal Italian Opera — a fittingly musical inauguration for a building that would later host generations of amateur theatrical performance. An illuminated clock, manufactured by Gillett & Bland and donated by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, was installed on 15 October 1861, and a porch with Tuscan order columns was added in 1879. The design features a symmetrical five-bay frontage, with rusticated round-headed arches at ground level, and sash windows flanked by Corinthian columns with alternating curved and triangular pediments above.

The building served as an air raid shelter during the First World War and as a military control centre during the Second World War — a period during which members of the Folkestone Operatic Society worked alongside military staff under its roof. It continued as the headquarters of Folkestone Borough Council until the council moved to a new civic centre on Castle Hill Avenue in 1966. Following the abolition of Folkestone Borough Council in 1974 and the building's absorption into the wider Shepway district, the Town Hall passed through a prolonged period of uncertainty: it stood largely empty between 1972 and 1982, with proposals including a casino, snooker hall, shopping arcade, and even demolition considered before the ground floor was converted to retail use and the first floor to a cinema in the late 1980s. Folkestone Town Council bought the building in June 2011, undertook a Heritage Lottery Fund-supported restoration programme, and reopened it in spring 2017 as the home of the Folkestone Museum and the meeting place of the town council.

FHODS at Folkestone Town Hall

Dramatic Productions (from 1947)

When FHODS resumed its activities in 1947, it held productions at three primary venues for dramatic work: the Leas Pavilion Theatre, Chichester Hall in Sandgate, and Folkestone Town Hall. The Town Hall's council chamber and public rooms — designed from the outset with civic assembly and performance in mind — provided a central Folkestone location for productions that required more space or a different character from the more intimate Leas Pavilion. With its Portland stone grandeur and first-floor principal chamber, the building lent a certain civic prestige to the productions staged there.

This post-war use reflected a practical reality: FHODS did not yet have a dedicated dramatic venue of its own. Its first owned premises — the 57-seat Ham Yard Theatre in the Queen's Hotel annexe on Church Street — would not be developed until 1952, and the Little Theatre in Sandgate, which became the society's main home for dramatic work, was not opened until 1965. Until these dedicated spaces came online, public buildings such as the Town Hall played an essential role in keeping the society active and visible in its community.

Large-Scale Productions after the Pleasure Gardens (1960s onwards)

The second, and arguably more artistically significant, chapter of the FHODS–Town Hall relationship followed the closure and demolition of the Pleasure Gardens Theatre in the mid-1960s. That venue had been the society's operatic heartland since 1913, capable of accommodating grand productions before audiences of close to 1,000. Its loss presented FHODS with a fundamental challenge: where could it stage operas and large-scale musicals that demanded a substantial auditorium?

The society's response was pragmatic and resourceful. Rather than scaling back its ambitions, FHODS staged its large productions in whatever spaces could accommodate them — commercial cinemas including the Odeon and the Ritz in Hythe, and Folkestone Town Hall. The Town Hall's principal rooms offered a more formal, civic setting than a converted cinema, and its central location in Folkestone made it accessible to the society's broad audience. It was one of the key venues that bridged the gap between the loss of the Pleasure Gardens and the eventual acquisition of the Tower Theatre in 2001.

This period of itinerant grand-scale production — in which the Town Hall played a genuine part — lasted for several decades, reflecting both the limitations of Folkestone's theatrical infrastructure and the remarkable determination of FHODS to maintain an ambitious programme in the absence of a large permanent home. One long-standing member of the society has recalled that colleagues from the Folkestone Operatic Society worked alongside military personnel at the Town Hall during the war years, suggesting a deep and long-standing familiarity between the society and the building that preceded even the post-1947 period.

The Town Hall Today

The restored Town Hall, reopened in spring 2017, is now home to the Folkestone Museum and functions as the offices and meeting place of Folkestone Town Council. Its principal council chamber on the first floor — the very room that once hosted civic debate, wartime operations, and theatrical performance alike — has been sensitively refurbished with Heritage Lottery Fund support. FHODS, meanwhile, has been based at the Tower Theatre in Shorncliffe since 2001, giving the society the permanent theatrical home it had sought for decades. The two institutions no longer share a programmatic relationship, but both stand as custodians of Folkestone's civic and cultural heritage.

See Also

• Folkestone-Hythe Operatic and Dramatic Society
• The Tower Theatre
• Pleasure Gardens Theatre
• Leas Pavilion Theatre
• Chichester Hall

References

• Tower Theatre Folkestone — History of FHODS
• FHODS Archive — The Tower Theatre
• Wikipedia — Folkestone-Hythe Operatic & Dramatic Society
• Wikipedia — Folkestone Town Hall
• Historic England — The Guildhall (List Entry 1061218)
• Folkestone Museum — About: History of the Museum