I visited the Penny Theatre
today at 4.30pm with my friend. I used to come to the Penny regularly years ago
when I was a student in Canterbury.
I loved it and my band used to often perform there. I have very fond memories
of it. I am still very upset at the experience I had today. As I entered, the
two bar staff (girl and boy) were flirting and shrieking. As I walked past it
felt like they were having a joke at my expense. Regardless of this, they made
no effort to say hello or be welcoming, even though I was the only customer
around. I went in to find a seat. I decided to sit outside. Whilst my friend parked, I filmed (on my little camera) the light coming through
the trees at the back of the garden. There was only one other person sat in the
garden, and he was right at the other end. I was filming the sky, facing the back
wall. My friend went to order coffee / tea and was told that the machine was
broken so we could not have either. He asked about food, and was told there
were menus on the table (there were none outside). He was then told to tell me
to stop filming. He returned to me outside, with a menu, said there was no
coffee or tea and I had to stop filming. I have never felt so unwelcome in a
pub in my whole life. This is somewhere where I
grew up, where I spent many happy years. I was not filming people. I had a tiny
hand-held camera (like everyone has on their phone) and was simply filming the
sky as I waited for my friend. I could understand if I was filming the inside
of the pub and people did not want to be on camera. But even in this day and
age, everyone, particularly students, films video on their phones whenever they
go out. The Penny
Theatre sets itself up to
be a fun, free, creative venue. I have found it to be the absolute opposite. I also visited last year, at
the end of my course. My group all met in the Penny to have lunch and to say
goodbye to each other. Even then the girl behind the bar was rude and
defensive, like she had been told to be as condescending and horrid to students
as she could be. I understood that since then there has been a change of
management and hoped it might have improved since then. Not so. My friend and I
walked out. We went to the cafe opposite in Northgate, where we were welcomed
and treated with respect. read more