Some thoughts on decoding Broadstairs history, some Broadstairs pictures taken in 1904 and a ramble about ports and airports.

Difficult to date, old pictures of Broadstairs that is, the changes are very subtle, but most of all it’s very difficult to find reference photos where you are absolutely certain of the date.

Back in 1904 the firm of W T Pike came from Brighton to produce a new type of guide book for Ramsgate and Broadstairs. What was new about is was that the business advertisements included photographs of the businesses taken by Pike’s professional photographer.

We sell a reprint of this guide and I recommend next time you are in Ramsgate you come into the bookshop (although not on Thursday as we close all day) and have a good old browse of it. We sell it online too but there is very little Broadstairs content as they only managed to sell three adverts there.

So here are the Broadstairs pictures and adverts from the guide all taken in 1904, here is the link to buy it online http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/ramsgate___broadstairs_by_camera___pen_1904_1905.htm

If you can get all of the locations I will be impressed, they are either very easy, or very difficult, or you own the guide.

There are quite a few publications about the history of Broadstairs, I took some of them of the shelves in my bookshop and laid the out on the carpet with the intention of adding one big photo, but wound up with three blurry ones. I suppose I need to call in an expert photographer like Pike’s   

It’s a funny old world I often get “you have memories with Joe Blogs” messages and seldom click on them, but I did today and really it seems that in two years we haven’t got very far with the local transport hub issue, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-idle-foughts-of-idle-feller.html

Still the uncertainties about the airfreight hub at Manston, although perhaps less drastic than the proposals for four runways. I suppose the really convincing argument for either an airfreight hub or industrialised port would be other coastal tourist areas that have been economically revitalised by either here in southeast England, away from major manufacturing areas.

On the Broadstairs front I suppose the main issue would be if Manston developed an airfreight hub, is that the town - being upwind - would get the particulate air pollution and as a 747 type freight aircraft burns a ton of avi derv for every movement, landing or takeoff and avi derv is worse than diesel on that front, anyone fancy trying to calculate the reduction in life expectancy there?

Finally the books that went on the shelves in the bookshop today http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/salvador-dali-illustrates-shakespeare.html worth a deco if you like Salvador Dali