Customs House
This is a rare survivor from the earliest days of the Harbour Arm station. It was once part of a grand Italianate building ‘befitting of the town’s importance in Victorian and Edwardian times’. It was completed in 1859 following the extension of the rail line to the harbour and the building of the harbour station.
Passengers stepping off the boat from France would pass through its hall before boarding the train to London.
But in October 1942, a devastating long-range German artillery attack aimed at the harbour left the building heavily damaged and following the war, most of the ruined structure was demolished. Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company restored the remaining fragment of history in 2017, including the carved head of Poseidon – Greek god of the sea and protector of seafarers – that presides over the doorway.
Customs House
This is a rare survivor from the earliest days of the Harbour Arm station. It was once part of a grand Italianate building ‘befitting of the town’s importance in Victorian and Edwardian times’. It was completed in 1859 following the extension of the rail line to the harbour and the building of the harbour station.
Passengers stepping off the boat from France would pass through its hall before boarding the train to London.
But in October 1942, a devastating long-range German artillery attack aimed at the harbour left the building heavily damaged and following the war, most of the ruined structure was demolished. Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company restored the remaining fragment of history in 2017, including the carved head of Poseidon – Greek god of the sea and protector of seafarers – that presides over the doorway.