From the King's Head
to the club
The King’s Head
The front of the King’s Head was built around 1700. The rest of the building is much older and dates back to medieval times, when it stood on the pilgrims’ route to Canterbury, at the corner of the High Street and the old Hempstead Road. Local tradition says a cellar room known as the Bishop’s Prison once held the Protestant martyr Richard Woodman before he was burned at Lewes in 1557.
The Commercial Hotel
By the turn of the century the building traded as the Commercial Hotel and Ye King’s Head. It had stables at the back.
A Charrington pub
The brewers Charrington owned the King’s Head, under a hanging sign of the king.
The club moves in
Charrington sold the pub in 1972 to the Cinque Ports and United Services Club. The name comes from the old Drill Hall, headquarters of the local company of the 5th (Cinque Ports) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
Owned by its members
The building is Grade II listed. The club is run by a committee its members elect at the AGM, and membership gives you a stake in the club.
From the archive
