Norman Folkestone

1095 Folkestone Castle built on Castle Hill.

1138 Folkestone Priory built with a church dedicated to St Mary and St Eanswythe.

1216 St Mary and St Eanswythe destroyed in a fire

Medieval Folkestone

1220 St Mary and St Eanswythe destroyed  

1236 St Mary and St Eanswythe extended

Georgian Folkestone 

1788 Sea bathing machines introduced. 

1794 Shorncliffe Army Camp & Shorncliffe Redoubt fort established.

1806 Martello tower built at Folkestone during Napoleonic Wars.
Folkestone Theatre opened at 1-3 Grace Hill.    
                       

        
1809 Harbour Arm built by Thomas Telford (1757-1834).

Regency Folkestone 

1829 Folkestone Harbour by JM Turner (1775-1851).

      

Early Victorian Folkestone 

1842 Foord railway viaduct built by William Cubitt (1785-1861).



1843 Decimus Burton (1800 –1881) employed by the Earl of Radnor to create the Leas promenade plus housing on West Cliff.
Folkestone (East) opened.
Steamboat ferry service to Boulogne started from Folkestone Harbour.
(Royal) Pavilion Hotel opened by the harbour.

1844 Folkestone Harbour by J Harwood.


                    
Horn Pier built by George Turnbull (1809-1889). He was William Cubitt’s engineer.

1846 Royal Victoria Hospital opened.

1849 Folkestone Harbour Station opened.

1856 Folkestone Harbour Station re-sited.
Folkestone Harbour Station Customs House opened.

1863 Folkestone West opened (originally Shorncliffe Camp).

Late Victorian Folkestone

1884 Folkestone Central opened (originally named Cheriton Arch then Radnor Park).

1885 The Leas Lift funicular railway opened. It used water and gravity and was controlled from a small cabin at the top of the cliff.

1886 Pleasure Gardens Theatre opened.                                                                                              

                                  
Folkestone Warren Halt Station opened.

1888 Victoria Pier opened.    
                    

1895 Folkestone Museum opened on Grace Hill.

1896 Hotel Metropole opened on The Leas.

1899 Queen Victoria made her last overseas visit via Folkestone.

Edwardian Folkestone

1900 Around 200,000 passengers used Folkestone Harbour. 

1902 Leas Pavilion opened on The Leas, 300 feet above the coast.                                                     

1903 Folkestone lighthouse opened on Harbour Arm.
The Grand opened on The Leas. Built by Daniel Baker as The Grand Mansions.

1905 Folkestone film (including Switchback Railway!).
Folkestone County School for Girls opened.

1909 Edward VII opened The Grand's new dance floor.

1911 Around 500,000 passengers used Folkestone Harbour. 

1912 Playhouse Cinema opened on Guildhall Street
Central Picture Theatre opened on George Lane.

Folkestone in WW1

1914 Start of First World War. 
Folkestone Harbour station now used for troops and supporting freight. It was known as the ‘gateway to the trenches’

Folkestone welcomed around 116,000 Belgian refugees, with some 15,000 staying in the town.

1917 Tontine Street bombed by German Gothas. 74 civilians died and hundreds injured.

Sandgate Hill Lift closed down. 

Interwar Folkestone

1922 Folkestone War Memorial by Ferdinand Victor Blundstone (1882–1951) completed.

1924 East Cliff and Warren Country Park opened.

1927 Leas Cliff Hall Theatre opened.        

1934 Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express at the Grand Hotel.

Folkestone in WW2

1939 Start of Second Wold War. Shorncliffe again used as a staging post for troops.
Folkestone Warren Halt Station closed due to landslips.

1940 Dunkirk evacuation. 46 vessels called at Folkestone, landing 29,265 personnel. In turn, these troops were transported by rail on the 64 "Dunkirk special" trains from Folkestone.
Metropole Lift closed down.

1942 Christ Church, Sandgate Road, decimated when it received a direct hit during a raid. Just the tower of the church escaped destruction.

1943 Folkestone Pier damaged by a fire,

1944 V1 Flying Bomb landed on Bridge Street resulted in 3 deaths and 60 injuries. Nine houses and the Wheatsheaf Inn destroyed.

Postwar Folkestone

1945 Dec: Noel Redding born at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Grew up on Cliff Road in Seabrook. In 1966 he joined the Jimi Hendrix Experience as the bass player.

1951 Saga founded by Sidney and Margery De Haan. They offered older guests off peak deals at the Rhodesia Hotel in Folkestone. It grew into an over-50s holiday giant.

1954 Folkestone Pier dismantled.

1965 Folkestone East closed.

1968 Goods yard closed.

1970 The Royal Pavilion Hotel, demolished.

1982 Venice Simplon-Orient-Express service established by James Blair Sherwood. Ran from London to Venice via Folkestone.

1984 Grand Austin mega hotel opened on site of Royal Pavilion Hotel.
Roger De Haan took over Saga from his father.

1987 Brockhill Country Park opened. 

1994 Opening of the Channel Tunnel impacted Folkestone’s ferry services.

Modern Folkestone

2000 Regular ferry service to France ended.

2002 Creative Foundation set up by Roger De Haan. Old High Street refurbished as the Creative Quarter.

2004 Roger De Haan sold Saga.

2008 First Folkestone Triennial. Several more followed.

2010 Plan commissioned for the development of the harbour and seafront.

2011 Roger De Haan bought Folkestone Harbour for £11 million.
Harbour Railway closed.

2015 Folkestone Harbour viaduct and station refurbished. Remaining tracks retained plus canopies and Customs House repaired.

2017 Viaduct across the harbour opened as a pedestrian route to Harbour station.
Leas Lift closed for repairs.
Folkestone Museum re-opened at the Town Hall.

Books:
A Descriptive And Historical Account Of Folkestone And Its Neighbourhood - SJ Mackie
(1856 J English)
Folkestone & Dover - Ernest Haslehust & Walter Jerrold (c.1910 Blackie)
Folkestone &and the War - Councillor John Jones (c.1919 J.Jones)
Frontline Folkestone (1945 Folkestone, Hythe and District Herald)
Folkestone: The Story of A Town - CH Bishop (1973 Headley Brothers)
Target Folkestone - Roy Humphries (1990 Meresborough)
Folkestone In Old Photographs) - Rooney et al (1990 Sutton)
Folkestone - Alan F Taylor (1998 Tempus)
Folkestone Past and Present - Alan F Taylor (Brendon 2002)
Around Folkestone & Hythe (In Old Photographs) - Ray Hollands (2005 History Press)
Dover & Folkestone During the Great War - Michael & Christine George (2008 Pen & Sword)
Folkestone's Disappearing Heritage Through Time - Pam Dray (2011 Amberley)
Folkestone & District Through Time - Pam Dray (2012 Amberley)
Folkestone Then & Now - Alexander Tulloch (2012 Pitkin)
Folkestone Through The Ages - Pam Dray (2015 Amberley)
Folkestone in 50 Buildings - Paul Harris (2016 Amberley)
Folkestone in the Great War - Stephen Wynn (2017  Pen & Sword) e-book
Fashionable Folkestone: The Golden Age of a Kent Seaside Resort - Martin Easdown (2018 Amberley)
Lost Folkestone - Alan F Taylor (2020 Amberley)
Rediscovering Folkestone’s Victoria Pier - Martin Easdown & Tony Hill (2025 -  info)