Harbour Street Ramsgate in 1971 and Canterbury Bookshop, painting and businesses.

Harbour Street and Harbour Parade 1971, which at some times have been the same street 

I don't think anything really beats the paper directories and walking the streets of Ramsgate with one in hand, so here is the link to buy it online. You can of course come into the the bookshop here in Ramsgate and have a good old browse inside all of the directories buying any that take your fancy.

If you go back to the 1800s then Harbour Street stretched all the way to Wetherspoons and there were buildings on Pier Yard car park making it double sided,

mind you if you go even further back Harbour Parade was called The Waterfront and all the way back to the early 1700s we had The East End and The Corner or Charge.

 As you know I am a bit fixated on the arts, literature and history, I can’t help this so if you read this blog that’s wot U get.

I have various watercolour paintings on the go in Canterbury at the moment.

This Watercolour of Canterbury Cathedral from Chocolate Cafe which is nearly finished. I had a bit of an experiment with the brown sign with white writing on it (bottom right). Normally I don't draw first with a pencil, wouldn't even know where to begin with masking fluid, so I tried writing the lettering in pencil, paintin around it with brown paint and rubbin out the pencil. I have had problems with the reflections in the windows of the building in front of the cathedral. as you can see on the left my sketchbook is starting to fall apart. The gold on the signs which looks like gold on the painting is Schmincke gold watercolour paint, you just slap it on and paint around it, so I can recommend this to anyone who hasn't tried it.  

I did a bit more on the St Anselm's Chapel one, trying to get the arches on the left side of the painting to vanish into the distance, but it's a bit of a spot the difference as I got sent down in the crypt because of evensong.

The trouble with the crypt is you can either see the alter or the paper, so while you can just about see the shapes of what you are putting on the paper, you can't really tell what colour paint you have mixed up.

 Two Canterbury businesses closing down today, La Trappiste, which is another branch of Ramsgate's Belgian Cafe

 and Kennedy's Shoe Shop

I did visit Canterbury Christ Church University Bookshop today, I was particular about going on Saturday morning when it is very quiet so I could photograph it without there being loads of people in it. This is one of my favourite new independent bookshops and may well be the last substantial independent bookshop in east Kent, it isn't very easy to find.

It's on the other side of the road opposite the cathedral's back passage

 Past the Queen of Kent

 The king of the English

 not the main gate

 through this hole in the wall

follow the Laud signs and it's just inside the Laud door, makes me think of Laud won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz 

 A very good general bookshop with a good children's and history section, the star turn is modern literary fiction.

pictures will probably get bigger if you click on them compulsively 

Queen Street and West Cliff Road in 1970 plus Westcliff Model Village video

I had a bit of a job finding a Queen Street photo and think this one is probably sometime in the 1960s, the van looks late 50s or early 60s the TV looks about the same date and the internet is understandably cagey about the invention of the anorak.

 I have added West Cliff or Westcliff Road as it is a continuation of Queen Street and I wouldn't have expected some people to know that it wasn't all one street.

I have also added this Ramsgate video of the Model Vilage, same area, same period.



Queen Street is a mix of mostly Victorian with a bit of Georgian architecture and some mostly fairly sympathetic modern architecture. It doesn't seem to have done so badly on the closed shop front, partly because there are a large number of estate agents, but there are still quite a few shops selling selling real items and I would think a lot of this relates to Queen Street being the road to Waitrose.

This is the link to the 1971 directory

And this one to the books we put out today

I should say again that nothing much will beat coming into the bookshop and having a good browse inside the directories tracing the individual streets and buildings back to 1849 or later if they were built later than that

 Here it is today