Having spent my college years in the city of Canterbury, there aren’t too many bars that I haven’t sampled.

From The Cherry Tree to The Ballroom – if it serves alcohol, I’ve been there.

However, one venue that opened after I left Canterbury and returned home was the Privy Bar.

READ MORE: The 10 best things about Canterbury and why I would love to still live there

I know what you’re thinking, “Privy…that’s another name for a restroom, not a cocktail bar.”

Well, before opening as a cocktail bar in 2019, that’s exactly what the site was like. It was an underground toilet block located close to the main bus station.

In 2015 the toilet went up for sale at an auction for around £198,000.

Bought by the owners behind The Loft Bar, the site is hidden from the usual passers-by and in fact, if you didn’t know it existed, you’d walk past it.

That’s exactly what I did when I returned to Canterbury before the pandemic with old university friends.

Confused as to why my friend was telling me the bar was on the right hand side, I kept walking around the next bend before being informed that the reservation for the evening was actually underground.

The only resemblance that things aren’t quite normal as you walk past is a security guard (turns out to be a bouncer) guarding two small doors and stairs that dive deep below the historic town.

If you walk past it late at night, you can also see glass windows that look directly into the bar, and although you can’t see inside, you can see disco lights when the bar is busy .

The hidden gem is located on the corner of Burgate and Lower Bridge Street and when busy the bar sells cocktails galore and has a 1920s theme.

If you’ve ever wanted to step back in time and feel like you’re visiting a speakeasy then this is the place for you in Kent.

Open until 2 a.m. and even 3 a.m. on certain evenings of the week, you can have a drink there, sheltered from the rest of the world.

According to their website, there is also live music and entertainment on the weekends.

The site can even be rented out for special occasions if you have a birthday or party coming up.

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Based in Denver Tom’s Watch Bar brings one of its great video-centric sports bars half a block from Nationals Park to DC

The sports bar and restaurant have signed a lease for 7,800 square feet at 1250 Half St. SE, part of the recently completed Kelvin Apartments, and will open next summer.

Tom’s presents its sports bars as a cutting-edge 360-degree viewing experience. The Navy Yard location will have hundreds of wall-to-wall screens with an oversized central stadium screen.

The menu will include tacos, prime rib sandwiches, burgers, wings and dozens of beers on tap.

The Navy Yard location will be the seventh location for Tom’s Watch Bar. The original opened in Denver about 10 years ago. It now has locations at Coors Field in Denver, casinos in Connecticut and Washington State, and others in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Tom’s is one of many new leases that KLNB has negotiated for Kelvin’s owner, Jair Lynch.

The Tropical Smoothie Cafe and F45 Training high-intensity fitness center will also open on site next year.

Previously announced leases for the same location include Silver Diner, which provides for a two-story location and its first traditional restaurant in the district, and Swingers Crazy Golf, which will open the second DC location for its indoor mini-golf course, bar and restaurant. restaurant.

Swingers opened its first DC location earlier this summer at Dupont Circle.

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