Margate has the proud heritage of being one of Britains first seaside resorts. Margate is a town in Thanet, Kent, England it was once an old fishing village, it was developed in the mid 1700s as the earliest coastal and sea bathing resort. The pier which was known as the jetty, has now gone.
The town has much to offer the holiday maker, with its Blue Flag beaches and lovely coastal scenery.
The Sea front is lined with all the usual, British seaside amusements, tacky penny arcades, Wimpy, cafe’s and restaurants. The beach how ever, is still an impressive stretch of golden sand with donkey rides, a bouncy castle and boating pool, making this a very popular place for families with young children. It was the first resort to have donkey rides, in 1890, and the first to introduce deck chairs, in 1898.
It is also one of the best beaches on the South East coast of England.
It was infamous for gang violence between mods and rockers in the 1960s. In May 1964, most major southern seaside resort in England were turned into a battlefield by the warring factions.
The Old Town Hall is a local History Museum which displays Margate’s history during the 18th and 19th century with original paintings, prints, photographs and other items. The court room and old Victorian police station can also be seen.
The Shell Grotto is one of the worlds most mysterious places, a series of under ground rooms and passageways covered by 2000 sq ft of exquisite shell mosaic. Nobody knows who created it, although many believe it is a 2000-year-old temple.
The Margate Caves, were discovered around 1798. The caves were carved out of the chalk more than 1000 years ago and have a fascinating history including being used as a prison, a smugglers hideaway and even at one point as a secret place of worship.
The Tudor house in Margate, is thought to be one of the oldest of its kind in Kent, it was open to the public on certain dates during the 2006 summer season. The house was built around 1525. The oldest deed for the house can be traced back to 1802, when the Tudor House was a farmhouse owned by Francis Cobb. During the Second World War, the roof was damaged and vibration from bombs led to it tilting forwards. In 1951, restoration work started to return the house to its former glory.
Margate faces major structural redevelopments and large inward investment. Its Dreamland Amusement Park (featured in “The Jolly Boys’ Outing” extended episode of the television series Only Fools and Horses) was threatened with closure because of the increase in value of the site. In 2003, one of the arcades on the seafront was destroyed by fire. This has created a new potential entrance point to the Dreamland site. In the following years, 2004–2006 it was announced that Dreamland (although somewhat reduced in its amusements) would reopen for three months of the summer; a pressure group has been formed to keep it in being. The group is anxious to restore the UK’s oldest wooden roller coaster, The Scenic Railway, which is Grade II Listed and the second oldest in the world, and which was severely damaged in a fire on 7 April 2008. It was planned that the Dreamland site will reopen as a heritage amusement park in the near future with the Scenic Railway at the centre. Classic rides from the defunct Southport amusement park have already been shipped in as well as parts of the now-demolished water chute at Rhyl. More details on Dreamland’s future can be obtained from the Dreamland Trust website. Today the Dreamland roller coaster is one of only two early-20th century scenic railways still remaining in the UK; the only other surviving UK scenic railway is located in Great Yarmouth and was built in 1932. If the Dreamland Scenic Railway is not rescued the Great Yarmouth coaster would then be the last of its kind in the country. The Margate roller coaster is an ACE Coaster Classic.
A controversial gallery, the Turner Contemporary, has been proposed, as an alternative to Margate’s traditional tourist trade, and when built it would have formed part of the harbour itself. Some critics, however, questioned the prudence of placing part of Britain’s national art treasures in a spot that is exposed to the full fury of the North Sea. Thanet District Council have now moved the building from the harbour wall, to a plot of land adjacent to the harbour because of the spiralling costs for a sea born building. Construction work on the project has a projected completion of December 2010. The scheme had been supported by the artist Tracey Emin, who was brought up in Margate. It is hoped the gallery will help regenerate the town in the same way St Ives has benefited since the introduction of the Tate Gallery.
There are two notable theatres, the Theatre Royal in Addington Street – the second oldest theatre in the country – and the Tom Thumb Theatre, the second smallest in the country, in addition to the Winter Gardens. The Theatre Royal was built In 1787, burnt in 1829 and remodelled in 1879. The exterior is largely from the l9th century.
An annual jazz festival takes place during a weekend in July.
Margate Museum in Market Place explored the town’s seaside heritage in a range of exhibits and displays until it was closed in late 2008 when the local authority suddenly withdrew funding to a number of museums.
There is a 16th century 2 storeys timber-framed Tudor house built onto a flint plinth, in King Street.
Margate features as a destination in Graham Swift’s novel Last Orders and the film made version of it. Jack Dodds has asked to have his remains scattered at Margate. The book tells the tale of the drive to Margate and the memories evoked on the way. It also features at the start and as a recurrent theme in Iain Aitch’s travelogue A Fete Worse Than Death. The author was born in the town.
Draper’s Mill is a smock mill built in 1845 by John Holman. It was working by wind until 1916 and by engine until the late 1930s. It was saved from demolition and is now restored and open to the public.