Sorry, but this is not correct. The club was named TOFTS after its owner/founders Harold and Doris Toft. They were ballroom dancers who had moved to Folkestone, from Yorkshire I think. When I first heard of it in about 1961 or 1962, the club was referred to as TOFTS JAZZ CLUB. It was situated in the annexe to the old Pleasure Gardens Theatre and moved to new premises on Grace Hill in 1964 when the theatre was due to be demolished. It may have been renamed TOFFS after Harold and Doris retired and sold up and was certainly renamed TOBY'S later. I first played at the old club in 1963 on the recommendation of my friend Noel Redding and was invited to provide the house band when the new club opened the following year. My bands, The Playboys and Take 5, played around 500 nights at Tofts between 1963 and 1968.
This is my website The Folkestone Gerald that I built in a fury of excitement when I first came here in approximately 2004. I'd been a frequent visitor for a while previous to that so I am technically one of those DFLs you get nowadays. The site was a lot more dynamic with a calendar of events and voting for favourite venues and things, and I hear it was a useful reference for others who were thinking of moving to the area. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though only to Hythe) it doesn't get as much attention as it used to. Ironic really as The town is becoming the exciting place we always thought it was about to become. My name is not Gerald BTW, this comes from the name of a pretend newspaper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are GRATE aren't they? Do contact me if you have anything to contribute, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.