What became of the likely lad? Doherty on life in Kent
Anew book reveals how Libertines rocker Pete Doherty lived in a storage container in Kent after being kicked out of the band’s hotel – and paid the owner with pricey pieces of art.
The musician says he was forced to find new digs after he was evicted from Margate’s Albion Rooms by bandmate Carl Barât.
The story is one of many Thanet tales in Mr Doherty’s recently-published tell-all autobiography, A Likely Lad, in which he also charts his battles with drug addiction, unsuccessful stints in rehab and runins with the police.
One of his brushes with the law saw him banned from driving for riding an e-scooter in Margate - a place he says will “never be gentrified”.
In the book he also tells of “desperate times” in the seaside town, and regales readers with some more light-hearted anecdotes, including the time he famously conquered a mega breakfast challenge at a Cliftonville cafe.
‘The hotel was pretty awful’
The Albion Rooms was snapped up by the four members of The Libertines in 2017.
When it was unveiled three years later, the Victorian structure featured a plush restaurant, café, bars and recording studio, which the musicians hoped would be their “very own Warholian Factory”.
But before it underwent the £450,000 makeover, the B&B – which used to be called the Palm Court Hotel – had been rated as “terrible” by 57% of its guests on TripAdvisor.
Mr Doherty says in his memoir the building “was all rotten green carpets and green doors with paint peeling off ”. Despite this, he moved in as the work to transform it began.
“But then as the development took shape and studio rooms were semi-usable, Carl began the long process of trying to extricate me out of Margate,”
he writes. “For me the hotel was heaven, because we suddenly had this bricks-andmortar place which was suitably dilapidated and in a kind of murky underworld area.
“They’ll try like hell, but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to gentrify Margate - it’s an incredible place to slip through the cracks. Or a terrible place to slip through the cracks, a tragic place in a lot of ways.”
Mr Doherty fell on what he describes as “some desperate times” in the town, prompting friend Jai Stanley to send him to a rehab facility in Mauritius.
Life in a storage yard
Upon returning to the hotel, the rocker saw movers lugging his belongings from the building as it entered the final stages of its refurbishment.
“Carl had had enough. I set up camp in this storage yard in Ramsgate, next to a breaker’s yard,” he says.
Mr Doherty lived in a storage container and paid the rent in art pieces - until Mr Stanley realised the owner had accumulated a number of valuable canvases.
Over this period, Mr Doherty says he “was smoking a lot of crack again, and I was getting nicked as well”.
The frontman was banned from driving in 2019 after totting up more than 12 points on his licence.
Months later, he was hauled in front of magistrates after riding an electric scooter in the middle of the night while searching for one of his dogs.
Mr Doherty claimed he didn’t know he wasn’t able to ride the e-scooter legally, after claiming he was told by police – who stopped him in Broadstairs for selfies – he could ride it on the pavement.
“I was bowling around Margate at five or six in the morning with the dogs, and I got to know all the other people walking their dogs at the same time,” he remembers.
“I was working through a driving ban until very recently because of confusion over the law with that scooter - I didn’t realise electric scooters are illegal to use on UK roads and pavements.”
‘I have the nickname Pigman’
In August 2018, the Time for Heroes singer made headlines for smashing through a mega food challenge consisting of four eggs, four pieces of bacon, four sausages, chips, hash browns, onion rings, beans, mushrooms, two slices of toast and a tea.
The lyricist polished off the meal at the Dalby Café in Cliftonville in less than 20 minutes, becoming the first person to have done so since 2014.
Alan Wood, who manages the premises, told the KM that the former Babyshambles member “just sat there and had a fag while watching the world go by” after clearing his plate.
A photo of Mr Doherty – who appeared sweaty and pale – taking on the dish was shared widely online.
“I didn’t mind the chef taking