Moss Bros spooked in Tonbridge....

Moss Bros, the men's outfitters, seem to have closed their doors for the last time in Tonbridge. Their shop next to The Chequers Inn was being cleared out the other day as I walked by so I asked one of the men working in there what was occurring. He simply said that the lease had ran out and that they'd opted not to renew it. By all accounts the decision was swift and they are relocating to Tunbridge Wells. Good opportunity for another business as it is a really lovely building what with its original Tudor beams and all. Apparently a café is being considered as one option but Tonbridge Blog is told that it's early days on that one. That would be a good use of the building I'd have thought. Just so long as customers don't mind the noises from the ghostly presence on the upper floor!...

Tonbridge Audi becomes Tunbridge Wells Audi....

Tonbridgeblog is probably a bit slow off the mark here but, driving past the other day, I couldn't help but notice that Tonbridge Audi seemed to distinctly lacking any cars in the showroom. On their website it says that they have "moved" to a purpose built site on, yes you've guessed it, North Farm, Tunbridge Wells. This probably accounts for why they are not sponsoring the Tonbridge Half Marathon this year which, by the way, is this Sunday if anyone wants to go and watch sweating people huffing and puffing as they run on by. Still at least we're getting a new drive thru Maccie D's! That said the North Farm have already got one of those as well. Charming isn't it?!

The best thing that happened to me today in Tonbridge....

Okay, not the usual style of this blog but I'm going to keep this up from time to time and you can blame it on a few positive thinking books which customers at Mr. Books recommended. So the best thing that happened to me in Tonbridge today was:

On my way in to work this morning I was walking over the wooden foot bridge near the Angel Centre towards Waitrose when I was stopped in my tracks by the pure simple beauty of the dappled sunlight, peeking through the trees, reflecting on the water as I looked down the stream. It was a lovely moment of calm in an otherwise fairly hectic day and I stopped for just a few glorious seconds to take it in.

That's mine now let's hear some of yours. I bit of positive thinking won't hurt anyone!....

Tonbridge not to become an independent country (for now at least)

The good of the people (of Tonbridge) is the supreme law...

So the people of Tonbridge and Kent have voted to stay a part of the UK. They must have figured out that the revenues from the couple of hundred visitors to the Castle and the few remaining apple orchards just wouldn't have been enough to sustain us for the next 300 hundred years. There was a cry of "Oh, let's just get the Yes vote and worry about the details later," but prudence and common sense seem to have won the day! For now at least....

McDonald's going super sized in Tonbridge....

As predicted here on Tonbridge blog there is a planning application in for a huge new McDonalds, with drive thru (with American spelling of course) if the report in today's Courier is anything to go by. This will be handy if you happen to be feeling hungry when buying a bag of screws at B&Q or if you are peckish when buying paint at Homebase next door. Not sure that many will go too far out of their way but you can bet your bottom dollar that good old Maccie D's will have done their home work. There's no doubt that it would be a welcome boost to jobs in the area and, as the spokesperson for the food chain says (apparently with no sense of irony at all, although it's difficult to tell from a quote) those employed at the new restaurant will have ..."access to leading training schemes, as well as the opportunity to gain nationally recognised qualifications."  They'll be able to flip burgers with the best of them anywhere in the world!...

Micro pubs and funerals....

Anybody know what's happening about the proposed micro pub opening at the north end of Tonbridge High Street? I just took a walk along to the shop where it was rumoured to be opening and there's no sign of any work going on at all. And, while we're about it, what is going on with the shop unit on the corner of Bank Street/High Street (the old Silvermans jewellers?) It has been "Under Offer" for months now. Tonbridgeblog understands that a funeral directors was awaiting planning consent but that was about a year ago. It's a mystery. Not even the ladies in the hairdressers next door have even a Scooby (that's clue btw just in case you're not up with the latest rhyming slang! Oh look, just think about it, Scooby Doo, clue. It's a bit like Your Aris but we won't go into that one shall we. Oh go on then Your Aris is your bum as everyone knows but it's arrived at in a typically Cockney cheeky way. Aristotle rhymes with Bottle, bottle and glass, if you're keeping up, rhymes with... that's right: bottom. So there you have it. Straight up, no word of a lie.) Anyway, when that micro pub finally does open mine's a Vera and Philharmonic!

Should Tonbridge become an independent nation?...

The great debate rages on and is likely to go right to the wire.... Should Tonbridge become an independent principality/republic? Let's have a record turn out at the polls tomorrow, get the yes voted in the bag and then, and only then, will we need to think about the finer details. Sir John Stanley for President of course. Let's all answer the call under the Three Red Chevrons flag of the De Clares! Tonbridge castle can once again be the seat of power and our proud town can be restored to it's former glory. (Think I'd better go for a lie down now!)

To Vape or not to Vape?

Okay enough sucking up to our very own Dame Kelly Holmes and on to more serious matters. TonbridgeBlog noticed the other day that we are about to have a vaping, or e-cig, shop open in Tonbridge. There's a large sign in the window of one of the Quarry Hill Parade shops which was previously vacant. Near or next door to the chippy. I was up North a couple of weeks ago and noticed that there was already one of these Vaping (that's what they called it actually) shops just opened in my home town and made a comment to my wife that there'd be one in every town before long. So are we seeing the tip of the ice berg (or should that be cigarette butt?) in this particular market. Is it sustainable to have a whole shop devoted to the product. I've even thought of stocking them in Mr. Books as a matter of fact. Decided against though as Mr. Fags and Books didn't have the same ring to it! I read a good article by Matthew Norman, who nearly always makes me chuckle, on the Telegraph web site today which, even though delivered very tongue in cheek, said that e-cigs are one of the best inventions ever, at least on a par with the wheel and the plough! Whilst that claim appears to be hugely exaggerated, for heavy smokers at least, the writer certainly makes a good point and goes on to say that he has been vaping the equivalent of 80 fags a day with no apparent tightness in the chest of phlegmy cough which would normally be associated with that level of self abuse. The jury is out as far as I'm concerned though because the other side of the coin is that people who might otherwise have not smoked at all may well try vaping just to see what all the fuss is about and, before they know it, they'll be on super strength capsules and shortly afterwards, so the arguments go, they'll be main lining H and snorting C & E, and munching cacti extract and scoffing down magic mushrooms and all manner of substances....