Chapter Seven
 

It was a 17th century wine merchants house on the outskirts of Canterbury. Timber framed house of three storeys and a low cellar on Wincheap, number 74, just outside the city walls. We sold our house in Ashford and along with 2 boys from Eastwell’s kitchen, Darel & Mark and David from the restaurant, together we set about turning what had formerly been a fitted domestic kitchen showroom, into what would become a Michelin Starred restaurant (although we didn’t know that at the time of course). Sounds easy, doesn’t it? 

Alan Briggs, a really eccentric builder we hired to do the work, drove a 3-wheel Robin Reliant just like Del Boy Trotter, but it wasn’t yellow! He did us proud, in so many ways, and in what seemed like a lifetime then but in reality, was only about 5 weeks. He got us up and running and open on Friday 9th December 1983 having just obtained our drinks licence the day prior, which was touch and go, in fact, he screwed the door handle on the front door and then went straight out the back, as the back door closed the first customers came in through the front door and we were off and running – well off and staggering at least.

We’d sold our house and netted £14,000, we then had to set about finding some money to fund this venture. The bank, when we eventually found one willing to lend, had agreed to match our money – but only on a government backed loan, meaning the bank was only risking something like £3K while the government sponsored the rest, the rest being £11k, so for £28k we had leased a property and taken this former kitchen showroom with living accommodation above to be ready to function as a restaurant in only 5 weeks and £28k. Looking back on that now we must have been mad to take it on. We had no savings to fall back on, nothing! Everything we had was going into this new venture, there was no contingency money stashed away for an emergency, no 2nd job to bring in more cash, no wealthy backers, or wealthy parents. Nothing, just us, I still wake up now sweating just thinking about it. Thankfully I didn’t back then, I’d hardly given it a second thought, why should I? We weren’t going to fail were we, no chance!

Jane and I went to see if we could get a loan from Barclays in Canterbury but were turned down, there were already many good restaurants in Canterbury, they didn’t need any more, according to the manager of the branch. NatWest, pretty much the same answer there too. Someone, I think it was an accountant, mentioned Williams & Glynn in Maidstone, they were looking for new customers for a new branch they were opening in Canterbury. We’d never actually heard of Williams & Glynn but that mattered not, so off we popped. The manager there could not have been more accommodating, yep you can have a loan but only on the government backed loan scheme, banks – totally risk averse, so as little or no risk at all was what was on offer! Still, we got the money and that’s what mattered.

Being so old, Wincheap House was what it was known as a grade 2* listed building, this of course brought with it lots and lots of restrictions. Canterbury we all know is full of old buildings like this, the majority of them were within the city walls. Ours was different, it was outside the walls, probably why it was only grade 2* listed not 1*. Great points were that it had main road frontage and there was parking available on that road. We also had our own car park for about 6/8 cars along with a small garden area too, so quite a lot going for it really. We were renting though and had a bank loan so we needed to take a fair bit of money to cover it all, and pretty bloody quickly too!

So, I think my dates are right here, it was about the 9th December that we finally opened the doors but so much work went on before we got anywhere near that point. Along with Jane and I, Alan Briggs our incredible find of a builder, Darel Turney, who came with me from Eastwell along with two others that also worked at Eastwell, David Egerton as our restaurant manager and Mark Dobson. We set about turning this 17th century Wine Merchants house from a kitchen showroom, into what we hoped would be a high end restaurant that was going to set Kent alight with a quality of food it had never before seen.

The interior downstairs was all plaster boarded throughout the two main rooms, a series of fitted kitchens had been installed and the walls to each kitchen tiled, just like they do in the likes of B&Q these days, (other DIY superstores are of course available). All of these kitchens of course had already been removed leaving the place looking a mess.

Behind these two front rooms there were a couple of store rooms and a small toilet. Upstairs on the first floor a large living room, a small domestic kitchen a bedroom and a bathroom and a store room too. Above this on the 2nd floor were three other rooms, unused. Yes, it was a large building. Our idea was that Jane and I would live on the first floor, one of the store rooms would become an office/store the other we would turn into the ladies toilets. The 2nd floor would be used as bedrooms/living accommodation for our staff.

When we took the building over all the plaster boarding and dividers that were breaking the rooms into smaller kitchen type areas had to be removed and we had absolutely no idea what we would find behind it all. What we did find though was wonderful, if not slightly daunting at the same time. 

The larger of the two rooms, the one that became the actual dining room, was panelled all round floor to ceiling with oak panelling, sadly it was in poor condition with a fair bit of it missing. In the far corner was an inglenook fireplace complete with a metal fireback dated 1690. The other room which was destined to become a lounge for pre and post dinner drinks and relaxation was also boarded over and the removal of this revealed another smaller inglenook fireplace but this one in dreadful condition and with a series of fireplaces built into it over the years. This is where the incredible Alan Briggs really came into his own!

Alan took it on himself to remake, repair and renovate the existing panelling which, by the time he had finished, looked like it had always been there. He did an immensely impressive job. He then set about the smaller of the two fireplaces, as this was in a very poor condition. The original brick-built fireplace dating back to when the house was first built had the original wooden beam over it holding the wall above it up and at least 3 other fireplaces built into it over the years, each one getting progressively smaller right down to the tiny hearth of the Victorian era. 

Alan set about removing each of the later additions with great care. Extreme caution in doing this was needed as the original brick built one was so fragile. The brickwork was all soft and crumbling and full of deep holes where rats over the years had eaten into it and made tunnels through it. It took a fair while but he got all of the newer additions out, leaving just the original standing. He leant in to it saying “I wonder if I can get that metal spike out easily”, he did and immediately took a photograph of the uncovered original, then, all of a sudden and without warning, it all collapsed in front of us! The result was a gaping hole and a rather large pile of builder’s rubble in the middle of the room.