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Celebrating the 60s in Sevenoaks |
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Local historian Edwin Thompson on how an underground coffee bar served sixties Sevenoaks
 John Lennon once said “If you can remember the sixties then you weren’t there”. This year marks forty years since the so called “Summer of Love”, “ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”, the ground breaking album by the Beatles, and a visit or three to Sevenoaks by the Fab Four. As they acted in Knole Park for films to accompany the songs, Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, little did they realise that just down the road existed a cellar meeting place with a very familiar name.
“The Cavern” was the name of a coffee bar situated underneath St Nicholas parish hall in South Park. It was started in 1966 after the success of a temporary coffee bar called “The Ark”, held in the empty shop at The White House, a large building almost opposite The Red House in the High Street. This had provided a place for the young people of the town to sit and chat over a cup of coffee and proved so popular that a more permanent venue was sought.
One of the organisers of “The Ark” was the Rev Ken Barham, curate of St Nicholas Church; he suggested the basement of the church hall as the new home for the coffee bar. So the young people of the local churches cleaned out the roomy cellars, installed tables, record playing equipment, and put the coffee on. “The Cavern” opened its doors in December 1966 and served as a place to meet friends, make new ones, listen to pop music, drink coffee and chat.
By 1968 the town’s only other evening coffee bar “La Cabana” had closed. Mr Peter Larcombe, the main organiser of “The Cavern” said, “The great advantage of it is that it provides somewhere other than pubs where teenagers can sit without being forced continually to buy something”. He added, “Unfortunately we are run by voluntary help and can only open one day a week”. Over a five-year period many of the town’s teenagers visited “The Cavern”. Perhaps, just perhaps, the lad hiding in the photograph is me, but then I don’t remember because I wasn’t there!
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 September 2007 )
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