The King's Hall is a theatre, concert hall and dance hall at Herne Bay, Kent, England. It was built as The Pavilion in 1903–1904, developed as the King Edward VII Memorial Hall in 1913 in memory of the late king, and was being called The King's Hall by 1912 while still at planning stage. Both building phases were designed by the local Council surveyor F.W.J. Palmer, CE. The year 2013 was the centenary of the completion of the second and final phase of this building and its grand opening by Princess Beatrice on 10 July 1913.
Location, name and site
The King's Hall is built into the Downs on East Cliff at the east end of Herne Bay, Kent. Before 1903, the Downs on East Cliff was a grassy slope down to the sea which during the Napoleonic Wars held a gun position and military camp. The Downs was later held by Herne Bay Urban District Council as a place of recreation. The first phase, the Pavilion of 1904, was intended as an improvement of a previous bandstand on the same site. This phase was called the East Cliff Pavilion at its opening, to differentiate it from the Grand Pier Pavilion (1910–1970). It later became the Pavilion or Bandstand. The second phase, or King Edward VII Memorial Hall of 1913, was being called The King's Hall in the local newspapers even before the ground was broken in 1912.
Pavilion or bandstand
Mr Thomas Dence the donor
The original building was a bandstand funded in 1903–1904 by Thomas Dence (1840–1918), a local developer who had been involved in the Frome Park Estate in Stroud Green and roads in the parish of St Mary, Islington, and owned property in Herne Bay. Dence had moved to Herne Bay for his health, bought the Downs, laid out roads at the top and built himself a house on Beacon Hill close by. He conveyed the remaining sloping land back to the Council, and in 1901 and 1903 suggested plans for a bandstand. He had in mind: "The erection of a pavilion on the east cliff for the use of residents and visitors. Its accommodation . . . should include a roofed in verandah shelter facing the sea, a large reading room intended to be supplied with newspapers, ladies' and gentlemens' lavatories, rooms for attendants, and drinking fountains . . . Band performances might at the discretion of the Council be permitted in the public hall, but no beach minstrels, or conjurors, or variety entertainments . . . The Urban Council should instruct their surveyor to prepare plans and specifications for this pavilion to cost £2,000, the plans to be so arranged as not to interfere with the view of residences then and thereafter to be erected on Beacon Hill." The Council was expected at its own cost to provide, prepare and level the site, to provide the design and specification, to superintend the erection, and to provide control, upkeep and management. It also had to place a stone in front of the building saying: "East Cliff Pavilion presented to the town of Herne Bay by Thomas Dence 1902." Dence would pay up to £2,000 for erection, fixtures, and the builder's invoices. Due to a new estimate by the Council surveyor and to site-preparation costs, Dence finally agreed to pay £3,745 in all, although the final cost as announced at the Pavilion's opening was £4,000. The completed building was handed over formally by Dence to the Council on Easter Monday, 4 April 1904.
Dence was an entertaining speaker, as can be seen by the speech he gave on Opening Day. He said that "the original design of the building was a rough sketch by his daughter, with all the features he sought to include in the building. This was handed by him to Mr Palmer . . . who prepared the present design in all its manifold details." He said to great applause that the Pavilion was "built so strongly and solidly, and on such good foundations that it was likely to stand the fierce north-easterly breezes for generations yet to come," and that "while the East Cliff Pavilion remained, Mr Palmer's name would ever remain." He said that Mr Ingleton's building work had done him great credit and that he "must have put the best materials in it for the love of it." On the subject of the popularity and health-giving properties of the town, he suggested to much laughter that because 1,000 and 1,400 persons were listed in the town directory in 1902 and 1904 respectively, Herne Bay could have 200,000 inhabitants in the year 2000. He wanted to press for gardens and walks on the East Cliff, and for a nearby park.