The Avenue Nightclub was formerly the Central Hotel and was located on the corner of Featherby Road on the A2 in Gillingham. It became Bar Rio in the 1990s but the nightclub was demolished in the late 1990s/early 2000s and replaced by housing that now occupies the site.
Photo of the Avenue Nightclub in early 1990s (judging from the MG Montego car in the background)
Photo of Central Hotel in Gillingham
The snow in Medway in 1987 was some of the worst for many years, possibly since the severe winter of 1962/63. Due to the snow areas of the towns were cut off and some supplies needed to be airlifted in as lorries were unable to deliver by road.
Pictures of the Winter 1987/88 Huge Snowfall in Medway & Kent. Below photo of Ford Capri stuck in snow in Chatham
Chatham/Gillingham/Rainham and Kent in general were hit particularly badly by snow in 1987 and for some days were cut off completely. I recall milk being flown in by army helicopter due to roads being impassable and major roads being blocked for many days. As outlined below the weather station recorded 22 INCHES of snow in Jan 1987 in Gillingham (in 2010 the roads were brought to a standstill with less than 20cm!!)
At the time I was working at Rainham Co-op as saturday staff, the shop now occupied by Wilkinsons. As school was closed due to the snow and being one of the staff that could walk to the shop I worked many extra hours during the snow building up my savings! Later on in the year the great Hurricane hit Kent during October 1987 leaving many trees blown down.
In 1987 the sea at Rainham (Motney Hill) even froze showing how cold the weather got. See the photo above of the frozen sea at Motney Hill.
Photos on this page are clickable to view higher resolution versions. These snow photos were kindly supplied by Steve Murdoch.
Photo of The Fredville Oak at Nonington near Dover. Locally known as "Majesty" this ancient tree is possibly 600 years old.
The full article is inside Action Forum - November 2016 Click to view (7Mb file)
The building now occupied by the Manor Farm pub & restaurant used to be the Gas showrooms as can be seen from this old photo.
The Manor Farm Pub and Beefeater restaurant in High Street Rainham Kent used to be the Gas Showrooms for the area. The gas showrooms were built around 1928 and converted to Manor Farm Beefeater Pub Restaurant in the 1980s.
The photo below is of Manor Farm Beefeater pub in 2001 before the outside was painted cream colour.
The Premier Inn was added to the site in 2011 covering part of the Manor Farm pub car park.
Manor Farm Beefeater Pub Restaurant High Street Rainham Kent in 2003 prior to construction of Premier Inn hotel in the car park to the right of this picture.
This photo was taken shortly after the Manor farm was repainted with the current yellow over the original lattice brickwork as part of their refurbishment
The photos below are from 2010 during the winter snow
Old photos by decade
Roads around the Rainham - old photos of how roads used to look in days gone by