News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Question 1 Can you name this Thanet building and say where it was?
Question 2 Can you name this Thanet street
Anyway enough of the questions, just a few local pictures
You can have a go at naming the pub lower left of centre the name is in the photo, sort of
Ramsgate Sands Station turntable in the background with clothes 1920s I think, but what or who Yuma was I don't know
The pub in the previous post was The Red Rover
Here at Michael's Bookshop where I work in Ramsgate we had a very quiet day which I spent making new header boards for the "Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror" section which I have recently expanded.
Our fiction book sales are fairly strong at the moment and I am hoping to expand our other fiction sections, crime fiction, general fiction and children's fiction during the coming year.
I am taking as much advantage or the road closures around the bookshop as I can, no busses here makes a considerable difference to how busy we are.
With the secondhand book business the limiting factor is the amount of good salable books that you can buy and price cheaper than the are on the internet, fortunately we are still buying a lot, so it all comes out about the same in the end.
Question 1 Do you recognise where in Thanet this is? Well I suppose was is more appropriate than is.
Question 2 George V Coronation Party so June 1911, but which Thanet street?
Question 3 WW2 Victory party so 1945, but which Thanet street?
Question 4 WW2 bomb damage, but where in Thanet?
an early Margate steamboat print from the Mick Twyman collection, from the construction style of the two steamers I would think not long after 1815 when paddle steamers first arrived in Margate.
Another one from the Mick Twyman collection which just says Armistice Celebrations 1918 so probably in the Margate area
on to the 1910ish Thanet map which may expand to a greater or lesser degree if you click on it.
Here at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate a very normal winter's day, bright cold January day reasonably happy customers, buying books from us and selling them to us.
I think I may have got a bit over focused on mystery photos here recently so I am going to stop doing them in pretty much every post; fun as it is, variety is I think better.
One of my favorite old Ramsgate guides is called "1939 Ramsgate new Holiday Recipe Book" I have blogged about it before and there are a lot sample pages online here is the link today however some of the adverts from this guide.
In view of yet another news item about the mental health harm associated with screen use, this time the lead BBC news item here is the link you may be better off coming to Michael's Bookshop here in Ramsgate and browsing the paper copy.
Back in 1939 people were very focused on aircraft, no thoughts of the environmental bill back then.
the average wage in 1939 was about £3.25 per week, about £200 per week in today's money, a new car was about £300 or about £19,000 in today's money.
strange times based on the working classes being paid very little and mostly renting what we would consider a slum property very cheaply, but much more complex than that. The implication that your pot of paint would be delivered by aeroplane in some brave new world may go some way to understanding the pre war period.
NRT stands for Net Register Tonnage
The past is another county and in a way the closer to home the stranger. At the moment in time our two big issues, how to deal with the impacts of climate change and technology are going to be viewed very differently. Well I guess that is if any future generations survive.
next a reasonably good quality Margate in the mid 1950s film
On the manston Airport front I guess many interested locals will have had this email
Dear Sir/ Madam
Planning Act 2008 and The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010
Application by RiverOak Strategic Partners for an Order Granting Development Consent to upgrade and reopen Manston Airport
Notice of Secretary of State decision to set a new deadline for the decision and request by the Secretary of State for comments and further information
Your reference: 20012002
Please be advised that the Secretary of State (SoS) has set a new deadline of 18 May 2020 for the decision to be made in this case. The SoS has also requested for parties to provide comments and further information on a range of matters by 31 January 2020. Please follow the links below for further information:
"Climate Change
22. The Secretary of State invites further clarification from the Applicant on its assessment of
the carbon emissions contribution from Manston Airport representing 1.9% from the total UK aviation
emissions of 37.5 Mt CO2 for 2050. The Climate Change Act 2008, as amended through the Climate
Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment) Order 2019, established a net-zero greenhouse gas
emissions target in law. The Committee on Climate Change is accordingly advising that the planning
assumptions for international aviation should be to achieve net-zero emissions and its emerging
advice to the UK Government is that this should be reflected in the UK emerging Aviation Strategy3
,
which means reducing actual emissions in the aviation sector. While the Secretary of State notes
that the Aviation Strategy has not yet been published, he would welcome comments on what the
implications of the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation on international aviation being
adopted might be for the Development, and on that basis what further mitigation measures might be considered in relation to the Development, so as to ensure the Government would be able to meet
its 2050 net-zero emissions target."
To my mind nearly 2% of the UK's aviation pollution concentrated in Thanet where the onshore sea breezes concentrate air pollution in the main concentrations of population, our seaside towns - may be a bit much.
Personally my own concerns are more focused on living long enough to appreciate climate change and not to be polished off by air pollution from Manston.
Once again I have just spent several hours looking at the DCO documents and once again I find that the applicant has taken the wrong distance dispersal figures for particulate air pollution, whether there is any point in telling them or pins again is another matter.
On to Wednesay's answers
All of the photos were from one page of a local history book we produce and the associated text, you may need to expand the picture above to read it, has all of the answers.
this is another of my favorite local books "Ramsgate & Broadstairs By Camera & Pen 1904 1905" here is the link to it but once again better to come to the bookshop and browse it.
Here at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate we have been finishing off a few local books so I should have some new titles to post about soon.
It is strange that however the town centre declines, whatever roadworks and other factors, after a few days the bookshop seems to bounce back again. So a fairly busy day today.
A bit more to my watercolour sketch in Ramsgate's Wetherspoons this evening
It's a bit of a spot the difference, I am not getting much time for this type of painting at the moment as I am concentrating on the painting and decorating type at home, which entails moving the people who live here from one room to another.
I think that's enough of the questions so a bit of a look at the seafront.
This is the demolition of Pleasurama
some out and about photos
The Duke of Kent aka Swiss Cottage aka Brace's,
demolition has started
New Look closure is underway
Not much left inside
Bonmarché says it's closing
What the solution to large empty shops in fairly small town centre like Ramsgate's is I don't really know. I know the largest expense by far is wages then perhaps a quarter of that rent and about half of that rates.
In the medium term if anything works it will be automation, but I think this will have to go much further than just automated tills. If we want actual shops in the the future I think we will have to make concession on facial recognition and robots filling the shelves.
here at Michael's Bookshop where I work in Ramsgate we have pretty much gone the other way, but if we had to make a profit rather than a proportion of our living then I think we would be long gone.
on to the mystery photo answers
Station Approach Road
Here text about this photo from the book August 1940 link to buy the book although you would be better off coming into the bookshop and browsing it
"Station Approach Road
In Wrecked houses met his gaze in Elmstone Road. It was there that an aged lady was taken from her Anderson shelter which had sustained practically a direct hit. She was badly injured, but is now on the way to recovery.
In Station Approach Road; and the lower end of Stanley Road, there was not a single house which had not suffered. One at least was entirely demolished and others were minus roofs it was in this neighbourhood that a police officer was killed (No. 29. P.C. Ticehurst) as he was sleeping after being on duty the previous night."
York Tavern 5 York Street Ramsgate
The rest of the mystery photos were all from one page of the book "Margate and Westgate With Birchington 1903-04" so the page with the text above has all of the answers. link to the buy it now page for the book
Frankly coming into the bookshop and giving it a browse is your best option if you can, remember we are closed Thursdays and Sundays.
Here at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate it has been a fairly quiet day, I put this down to the weather and the busses not running to here due to the roadworks
It's a strange thing to me how in what seems to be a retail disaster here in Ramsgate the bookshop mostly rumbles along as though the world outside hasn't really changed.
