To ask - Folkestone changed a lot since the mid 2000s?

[FoordHopeful]

I moved to live in Folkestone in 2005 to work in Saga Insurance.

I left in 2008

I’m now kinda sentimental for those times and want to go back .

Has it changed a lot in past 20 years?

Maybe I can go back there, relive the mid 2000s and open a MySpace account!

Oh yes. Full of DFLs now (in part probably because of the high speed train for commuting & the rise of WFH) & has become very 'arty'. Lots of regeneration due to De Haan, but I don't see much in the way of improvement in social improvements (others may be able to correct me on this). I have to say, I only moved to the area for work, & as soon as I can, I plan on moving away. It's never felt like home for me.

Thanks so much for replying

i lived in Folkestone Harbour from 2006 - 2008 and it was very rough then .,,

if I moved back I quite like the ‘cosyness’ of the Foord area - but from what I see that seems a relatively deprived area - the area just down the hill from Black Bull pub

But tbh I’m not interested in living in an affluent part anyway just not the god awful block of flats I used to live in

I moved to Folkestone at the tail end of 2005 November.

Even as long ago as early 2006 - the town centre was changing - the nice M &S disappeared from town to be replaced by discount stores - then the nice Pizza Hit restaurant also closed iirc early 2006 - so the ‘nice’ shops were disappearing from the high street as long ago as that -

Tbh, I used to feel that the now long gone Debenhams store was too upmarket for Folkestone !! The grandness of it to me was a bit out of kilter with the downmarket drabness of the rest of the town centre.

Maybe I’m being harsh?

I like Folkestone.

I was thinking of moving there to semi-retire then I ended up in Deal instead, but still visit it often.

I like its arty vibe, the old high St and it seems that there is some good ongoing investment in the town.

Nice cafes and restaurants and I have always found people there to be very friendly.

Aw I LOVE ❤️❤️ Deal!!

when looking at which Kent coastal town to return to .. it was a case of ..

Deal or No Deal?!

ok, I’ll duly see myself out !! 🤣

but I absolutely loved Deal - so many to choose from

Herne Bay. Tankerton etc

My sister has lived in Hawkinge for 13 years and folkestone prior to that. She wouldn't live anywhere else

Aww!! Hawkinge is meant to be absolutely lovely !! I never even visited there when I lived there but several of my colleagues lived there and from pics etc I’ve seen of it - it looks lovely!

Deal is indeed lovely.

Friendly people and still lots to do for a small town :).

Also easy to travel to Canterbury and Margate from here.

I would have happily lived in Folkestone too though :).

I loved Canterbury never went to Margate

But I’m just thinking - if I ever went back to Folkestone to live -

Saga Insurance has now comply disappeared from the town

What other jobs in Folkestone would be there for me to do other than the service industries?

There didn’t seem a lot of ‘office’ type places there in the mid 2000s iyswim apart from Saga

I think Hawkinge tbh is overall a ‘nicer’ place to live than Folkestone

YABU

Why?

Yes but its still part of it, albeit a few miles up a hill. I went to college in folkestone, happy memories

East Kent College? My colleague went there

I grew up there so lived there from 1982-2004, worked producing saga holiday brochures and loved Sandgate but was happy to move away from Folkestone. The girls grammar did me well in terms of education. We go back as family are still in Hythe (which is nice), and the harbour is a lot nicer but there’s a weird vibe. No one seems to smile/acknowledge each other. Living in the West Country now I find Folkestone depressing.

Ah thats interesting - so I arrived in November 2005 just after you left !

I lived in a very rough block of flats so if I went back there - I’d never live there again ! I also worked for Saga - firstly in the offices above Boots the Chemist and then in Saga’s flagship building - Enbrook Park!!

Thing is apparently Saga has completely left Folkestone now so I think the fabric of the place has changed

When they built that saga building they had an open budget. It’s concrete/glass/metal - all retract at different temperatures so there were always buckets everywhere to catch the rain 😂 (I did love working there). Then I moved to work as a subeditor at the Folkestone Herald.

Blimey I never knew that about the building!

that sounds an interesting job to be fair - working fir the Herald?

@FoordHopeful i loved it. We worked crazy hours but my now dh worked with me and then we moved to the western gazette and I became features editor. I now work in nhs communications, and love that too (newspapers are very different now)

No way! Hawkinge is a set of blobs of new estates squished together to make a small town out of a village with one Lidl and couple of hairdressers and kebab shops.

The "nice" bit of Folkestone is creeping upwards from The Old High Street back towards the crummier Bouverie Place. Rendezvous Road now has 4 new independent shops in the old mixed Asian buffet ace and Wilko is now a fancy indoor market, a new offshoot of Ramsgate's Petticoat Market.

I lived in the cheriton end of shorncliffe road.

where are you living now @FoordHopeful

my memories of Hawkinge are friend’s fields drinking vodka age 16 😂 I know it’s changed a lot. We go occasionally to the crematorium to visit my sister’s grave.

argh so you’ve still got an emotional connection to Folkestone ❤️

I lived in Folkestone Harbour. I was pretty grim in mid - late 2000s

ibnow live in Hertfordshire

Ahh thats interesting - it’s changed quite a bit since I was last there then - 2008

ive never actually been to Hawkinge

I think there’s still the pockets of people who made it grim sadly. The locals also seem to talk with Essex accents which is very odd to us - dh and I don’t have the accent as it wasn’t a thing in the 80s/90s 😂

We went there a couple of weeks ago and had a lovely day and evening. Beach was lovely and we had a great time on the harbour. Live music, loads of food, clothes etc stalls. Everyone I saw was having a lovely time. Also the Kate Bush tribute was the next day so that was fun to watch.

I’ve heard permission has recently been granted for swanky new apartments to be built (not sure how soon). So the harbour and all the businesses will pretty much be gone. From what I saw, that was the main attraction, doesn’t seem like too much more it going on there.

I’ve been there once so I definitely don’t know as much as others on this thread lol. We had a fantastic time, preferred it to Brighton and Bournemouth, that’s for sure.