Thursday 18 April 2013

The Royal Ramsgate a ramble


The Royal wasn’t ever thus, the previous building was The Royal Hotel, but before even that it was the Kings Head Inn.

It is partly because of this that I wanted to do a sketch looking from the window of The Royal in the direction of Harbour Parade, anyway here is the sketch.

In this case I used a 0.5mm propelling pencil with a B grade lead, any softer and the watercolour smudges it, any harder and it becomes difficult to rub out.

In 1817 Henry Moses, sometime artist engraver to The British Museum, came to Ramsgate and did a series of sketches which he then turned into a book of engravings of the town.
This is one of the engravings looking this way
 and this is the other.


The pictures are from the A5 reprint I publish of this book.

The Royal produced a much better lunch than I expected, the food in there is very cheap for what you get.

The staff very courteous and I will return, although not perhaps in the evening when I think it is a venue for people who are a lot younger than me.

The sun streams in through the window there and after about an hour, which was how long it took me to eat and do the pencil sketch I was to hot to watercolour it.

I don’t like drawing from photos and in an ideal world I wouldn’t colour a sketch in from a photo either, but will probably give this one a go.

There are surprisingly few places to eat and drink in Ramsgate where there is a view that one would want to draw from any of the tables.

Rambling on, the new development adjacent to Adelaide gardens is nearly finished more photos via the link further on.

Tonight’s council meeting is due to debate The Royal Sands, the council are obliged to do so because of the submission of over a thousand signatures.

Rumour is something along the lines that that the development of the site may be split between two developers, possibly SFP and Cardy, as always with this development information leaks out rather than gets announced.



I have put the first bit of the watercolour on and am waiting for it to dry before putting some more on, cobalt blue for the sky, davys grey for pizza bank, the road and museum, most of the other buildings got naples yellow and cerulean blue for the roof of the pav.

Always difficult to tell how far to go, with a B grade pencil you can rub out the pencil after you have put the paint on if you want.

A bit of more detailed painting on the left of the picture now, as you can see things are a bit wet in the middle, so a drying break. The frustration of not being able to paint it from life but using a mixture of memory and the photos is difficult to describe.

That's it as they say.
I have joined the middle of the Henry Moses prints together, it should expand if you click on it a few times. the building in front of the obelisk is the Harbour masters house and harbour offices now demolished.

33 comments:

  1. So Pleasurama gets split into 2 development sites, I presume one being the hotel and the other being 107 apartments. So is it coincidental that a dormant company called Future Homes online incorporated by Shaun Patrick Keegan in October 2008 (06726001) has its name changed 4 April 2013 to CARDY DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED, something the directors of Cardy Construction seemed to be unaware of. For those that havent been following the Pleasurama debacle Shaun Patrick Keegan is the 100% controlling director of SFP Ventures (UK) ltd the "developer" of the site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know Barry as I said only a rumour, I did email Cardy about the change of name of Future Homes and here is the reply I got:

      Hi Michael



      Thanks for your email.



      I am however already fully aware of all such information.



      Kind Regards



      Michael

      Delete
  2. Seems you bullshit further without allowing any facts to trouble your ramblings James. Michael, anything better than rumours to go on?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was just checking my bets. Didn't go well horseracing wise but I got a small return on my room bet that JH would be a runner on Thanet Online.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michael, it would appear that the only hope Cardy Construction have of recouping their £1.5m is to build out the project, lets hope their professionalism can bring some order to this fiasco.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My understanding is Cardy offered £1.5 million but so far their associate Company Cardy design builds ltd only shows a spend of £3/4M. Stll a lot of money to lose if TDC pull the plug.

      Delete
  5. Funnily enough, Lyndon, I came up with the same bet on you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not really, I take a rumour to be what one person tells me, I guess there may be some more come out at tonight’s council meeting, we will have to wait and see.

    Only one tweet about it so far.

    Thomas Brown ‏@GazetteMargate23m
    Thanet council reveals that it will not sell Ramsgate Royal Sands freehold until completion of the works. More details in tmrw's Gazette.
    Expand


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In that case Michael, you could be the 1st to report that James is a clueless bullshitter, and that Tom and Palmer may be about to make successful bets on the bleeding obvious.

      Delete
  7. Very interesting and informative post Michael; must have that book by Henry Moses.
    Thanks for the photo’s, how little things have changed, definitely cleaner around town but that is perhaps your selective points you have photographed.
    Thought you had lost your pencils but pleased to see you haven’t, as always very good to view from your eyes.

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    Replies
    1. Alan I don’t like to draw from photos, of for that matter lay out vanishing points, as I reckon there isn’t much point in doing what Moses did, now the camera has been invented.

      The truth is I draw when I get a chance, which isn’t that often.

      I assumed you had the book and will post you one.

      Delete
    2. Already ordered the book Michael, I must have missed it in your listings when viewing in the past, but thanks anyway.

      Delete
  8. See my twitter feed @simonmoores for what happened in Council tonight. You really could not make it up... !


    Ian Driver with his portable soap box and camera toting Christine Tongue thrown out of the chamber.

    Labour loses a vote because young Will Scobie didn't return in time for the Pleasurama vote as he was busy glad handing the bedroom tax protesters outide the Council offices during the adjournment while Cllr Driver and Christine were removed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simon the real issue here is that the meeting should have been live streamed via youtube which costs nothing. As it is the council officers will edit the video of the meeting and publish it on an expensive server about a week after the event, when it is no longer of much relevance, or of much interest.

      I have a written officer reply saying that council meeting videos can’t be published on youtube because of protection the council’s copyright.

      Much as I appreciate your efforts in tweeting the meeting, I understand that you were the only councillor that did this, so I only have a very short account with a blue tint.

      Delete
  9. I thought the public are legally allowed to video council meetings now, or doesn't that apply to TDC? Perhaps Simon can clarify the law on this for everyone?

    Louise wrote about this a few weeks ago:

    http://margatearchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-right-to-report-film-and-tweet-from.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes the public can video etc public meetings. Not posting a TDC video on Youtube is nonsense - the public own any such copyright. Just civil service secrecy.

    On the Thanet Labour blog Clive's Leader Report claiming that FOI costs the public - forgetting that the civil servants are paid anyway and that all council information could be routinely provided on the website.

    And there doesn't seem to be a Report of what he's done just some general hot air statements about Sandy. If Labour are so excellent why the £25k ChinaGate donation and still continuing secretive Pleasurama?

    Then claims that on the pink/confidential papers would be subject to a public interest to somehow confirm it's in the public interest for the public not to know how public funds are spent.

    Useless - another selfserving Party politician trying to place The Council and his Party interests ahead of the public. And why are councillors making FOI requests anyway - they're meant to be given the information and if not sack some civil servants.

    And any KCC councillor should not be elected if they won't guarantee full FOI.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Re: videos of council meetings.

    This originates from a letter from the Department for Communities and Local Government to council leaders in 2011:


    Letter from Bob Neill to local authority leaders: access to meetings


    start of paragraph 3 says: "There are recent stories about people being ejected from council meetings for blogging, tweeting or filming. This potentially is at odds with the fundamentals of democracy and I want to encourage all councils to take a welcoming
    approach to those who want to bring local news stories to a wider audience."

    As far as I'm aware, this doesn't specifically enable members of the public to film council meetings - it just encourages councils to allow it. Some local authorities have decided to allow filming, tweeting etc in response to this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous 10:41,

      You are correct.

      Has TDC ever explained why they do not want the 'Citizen Journalist' to film and tweet from Council Meetings, and why they consider it reasonable to defy Ministers' guidance and requests?

      They may have very good reason and if so they should tell the electorate.

      I can understand why some in TDC do not want their meetings filmed. They recognise that their antics will wind up on YouTube and they don't want that. To be there amongst the singing dogs, parrots and drunks falling over at weddings would be an affront to their self regard.

      Though it may sound cruel, I always bear in mind that with TDC, save for one or two notable exceptions, we are dealing with pygmy politicians. Politicians who would be out of their depth in a puddle.

      Delete
    2. It has to be bourne in mind the hatchet job that someone like Tongue would do on any video produced. Her producing a fair and accurate record of what occured would be akin to believing that Margaret Thatcher was a closet communist, and and Arthur Scargil was a right wing fascist!

      Delete
    3. John Hamilton,

      This was a win - win opportunity for Ms Tongue and her Red Hall Massive. She either got to make her carefully edited propaganda film, or be martyred by being slung out of the meeting. A full account appears in Pravda [Thanet Watch].

      Delete
    4. Couldn't agree more John Holyer.

      Tongue got her drama, and Driver got his publicity stunt, and both of them abuse the poor long suffering Northwood residents who are being failed by the clown that Driver has become.

      Delete
  12. John,

    John, The reason TDC don't want publicity is that it has degraded into a total shambles from top to bottom. The Cons are blighted by a never ending supply of ne'er-do-wells put forward by Thanet North Conservatives under Sir Roger Wind. Add to that the criminal connections that they can't disassociate themselves from. The Labour lot are no better, with few brain cells between them and at least one member breaking all the rules and continually taking up causes for her mates. Add to that an officer machine that is desperately broken, with the overpromoted Senior Management Team ducking and diving to appease the ruling group whilst at the time desperately holding onto their fat cat jobs and pensions. No way out of this I'm afraid. Bring on a Unitary.

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  13. Anon 1:17 pm,

    I have often considered that I would support a unitary solution. Not only for the purpose of saving money but also to raise the standard of the politicians and officers.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Unitary would be a win win for Thanet. 1) A minority of Thanet Councillors would be amongst many others with no self interest agenda's in Thanet, and 2) an officer machine that could fulfill the roles that Thanet officers appear either unwilling or unable to perform.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The snag I see with unitary would be if the electoral balance meant that we always got the same party elected, we could end up with problems associated with this.

    I guess the same problem relates to elected leader.

    It is the bane of party politics at local level and I guess the party infighting and failure to address what the actual issues t yesterday’s meeting…

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    Replies
    1. If always getting the same electoral balance, although I would question why that would be with both Thanet and Dover disatricts marginal, avoided the shambles of a divided council that prevails in Thanet is anything to go by then bring it on.

      Sadly, it seems that politics in local government, first introduced by Labour, is here to stay though perhaps a form of proportionate representation at local government level might lead to more need to co-operate. Even that is questionable though if TDC is anything to go by for, whenever did we need parties to get together more than we do now in Thanet. Seems not to be the nature of the beast.

      Delete
  16. Replies
    1. Cllr Driver 9:49 pm,

      What do you understand by fair voting?

      Delete
    2. Only people in dirty anoraks get to vote!

      Delete
    3. Only people naive enough to think Driver says anything worth hearing...

      Delete
  17. what A BUNCH OF CHILD LIKE ART, YUKKY

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.