A Rigdens/Fremlin/Whitbread inn.

The Wheatsheaf Inn is first referrered to on a Trader's Token dated c. 1666 which shows Francis Banick as the innkeeper. The Licensing List for 1692 includes this inn and the City Maps of 1790 show the inn almost on the site of the present Station Hotel. It was located at the junction of Wincheap and Wincheap Green. In 1826 the innkeeper, John Springett paid Land Tax to John Rigden brewer. In a Directory of 1838 the innkeeper of the Wheatsheaf was Edward Harnden.

With the coming of the Railway the old Wheatsheaf inn was demolished, rebuilt and renamed the Railway Tavern in c. 1860. The 1862 Licensing List shows this as the Railway Tavern.

In 1870 the inn was purchased by Rigdens the brewers for £187. 10s. 0d. And sometime before 1882 the name of the inn was changed to the Station Hotel.

It name was subsequently changed again in 1968 to The Man of Kent because this name 'crossed the road' when the inn of that name at the corner of Worthgate Place had to give way for the new ring road. The new inn sign pictured a Kentish soldier in Flanders in 1915. In 1972 the brewers, Whitbread/Fremlin decided to ask the Queen's Own Buffs Regiment for permission to use a copy of the painting by Lady Butler of 'A Man of Kent' which hangs in the 2nd. Bn., the Queen's Regiments Officers' Mess.

It has again been recently renamed and is now (2002) called 'The Roundhouse'.

Wilmot, E., 1988, Inns of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29737.