Confession time: I'm a bit of a history nerd. And the more I dig into Folkestone's past, the more convinced I am that this town punches well above its weight historically. So here are five facts about our little corner of Kent that might surprise you.
1. Tontine Street is named after an 18th-century investment scheme
Yes, our street. A "tontine" was a slightly morbid financial arrangement where a group of investors pooled money and the payouts grew as members died off - last one standing took the lot. The street was built in the 1860s using a tontine-style scheme to fund it, and the name stuck. So technically, The Workshop sits on a street named after one of history's strangest pension plans.
2. The man who discovered blood circulation was born here
William Harvey, the physician who first properly described how blood circulates around the body, was born in Folkestone in 1578. It's one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine, and it started with a Folkestone lad. His statue still looks out over the Leas - and the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford is named after him too, so half of east Kent has been treated in a building named after a Folkestone lad.
3. Folkestone is home to the oldest verified remains of an English royal
In 2020, scientists confirmed that bones kept in St Mary and St Eanswythe's church (just up the hill from us) belong to St Eanswythe herself - a Kentish princess who founded one of England's earliest monastic communities here in the 7th century. That makes them the earliest verified remains of any member of an English royal family. Casually sitting in a church five minutes' walk away.
4. Around 10 million troops passed through Folkestone in WWI
During the First World War, Folkestone Harbour was the main departure point for soldiers heading to the Western Front. Millions marched down the steep hill to the harbour - now known as the Road of Remembrance - many for the last time. Next time you're down by the Harbour Arm, you're standing somewhere with real weight to it. (Worth knowing if you go looking: the Road of Remembrance is closed at the time of writing, July 2026, so you can't walk the route itself just now.)
5. Tontine Street itself has a sombre place in wartime history
On 25 May 1917, Folkestone suffered one of the first aeroplane bombing raids on Britain, and the worst single bomb fell right here on Tontine Street, outside a greengrocer's. More than 70 people lost their lives. There's a memorial on the street today - worth pausing at if you've never noticed it, and it's on the Imperial War Museums' register too: Tontine Street, WW1 Air Raid.
So there you go - blood, royalty, war and questionable Georgian finance, all within a few minutes of your desk.
Got a Folkestone history fact I've missed? I'd genuinely love to hear it - drop me an email or grab me next time you're in. If I get enough good ones, we'll do a part two.