A few old Thanet pictures

York Gate Broadstairs before 1907 as you can see from the postmark.

 These two are part of a Ramsgate Model Village series that say "Greetings" on the back but have no postcard layout, I assume they could be bought there as souvenirs

 I would guess from the bathing tents that this one is between the wars

 This is Negate gap in the late 1890s

I think this is an early one of The Pav 190something


Canterbury today

Note the blind where the return spring has broken

with the various watercolours I paint it is a bit of a spot the difference

 so today I added the broken blind to this one.

I was painting from a table outside Chocolate Cafe.

The article about Barclays closing their branch at Asda Westwood was a bit of a retail eyeopener for me. It seems to say that the branch only has 159 regular customers, can that be right? My guess is that this may have something more to do with the way people behave in supermarkets differing from the way they behave in towns, than internet banking. Or perhaps I am the only one who ever has to queue in the bank here in Ramsgate.

I tried actively engaging in shopping in Canterbury today, as a shop worker I am becoming increasingly concerned about the decline of the non food shop in our towns. Something I still really can't understand is why it has to be such a bad experience for an ageing bloke.

Still in the retail sphere, Michael's Bookshop here in Ramsgate where I work

this is the link to the pictures of the books we put out yesterday

I am also beginning to take an interest in what both Tripadvisor and Google have to say about our shop and other shops. Of course there is a sense in which it is us, we the general public who write these reviews. There is also a fair bit of publicity recently related to misuse of the review system.

With bookshops that sell on sites like Amazon there are also the reviews there, one of the funniest negative reviews we got was because the customers didn't like the story in the book they bought from us.

Mostly though if we get a negative review it is because the customer paid for second class post but expected it to come first class, since we started sending everything recorded we haven't had much not turn up.

My whole stance with selling books on the internet is related to improving the books we have in the bookshop, this is mostly selling books that haven't sold in the bookshop and the local history books we publish.

In an overall sense though I think the business of closing shops in our towns is having a major impact on the way we live. 

Old local pictures, a bit of a moan, a few new pictures

Wandering around Ramsgate I am very much aware of how many prime leisure sites are disused.
Obviously the Pleasuama site is the highest profile, however I am sitting on the sundeck of
The Royal Victoria Pavilion or Wetherspoons along with a few hundred other people and
vaguely wondering how many thousands of pounds per hour this space is taking today.

I think the key attraction with this particular space is that what will happen is very predictable and
that whatever view you choose from your seat remains uninterrupted by traffic and parking.
Extended pros and cons are, no dogs, this is a pro for some people and a con for others.
A funny one this as the majority would pretty much have to be silent, if there is one,
Do you like my lovely dog anywhere near your food?
Do you want anything going on your mouth being served or prepared by people who have just petted it?
My dog is bigger than yours, is better/worse than yours..  
We normally had three dogs when we lived in Augusta Road but not now, dogs and
town centre flats are too difficult for me.

This picture of Ramsgate was taken before 1860 when buildings on the right of the picture were demolished to make way for the railway station.

This is the link to the 1849 map of Ramsgate

Having looked at it you probably have as much idea of what was there as any one else

 The area behind the maritime museum benefits from an excellent unobstructed view but has been out of bounds for several years now because of

 loose lump of masonry hanging above it, only in Ramsgate I guess.

 The slipways are a case of no viable solution prior to demolition, it transpires that Hornby were not as interested as the developer implied.

This is the link to the photos I took today

If you managed to read the back of the postcard at the top, you will have noticed that it was posted on June 28 1911. One of the most informative I have read from this period. At this time the Harbour is very much a transport hub [the fishing industry is also very significant] cargo vessels and passenger steamers. With a railway station by the sands both in Ramsgate and Margate, going to Margate by steamboat and returning by tram changes my perspective on travelling around Thanet just over 100 years ago.

Apologies next, the link in yesterday's post that said it lead to the 1849 map of Ramsgate lead to the 1849 directory buy it page. I have hopefully corrected it now.

When and where is a Ramsgate Brewer not a brewer?

I suppose the short answer to this one is 1849, where, I guess, is much more difficult so where do you get a shield bug on Bellvue Hill, which now of course is Plains of Waterloo.

 Where I live over the bookshop in Ramsgate is one of the most deprived wards in the UK, there are pros and cons to this, but in terms of animal rescue, geographically disadvantaged insects and the like, When the what?

Deprived, book collectors, dear readers, shoppers deprived of shops, well they don't walk by on the other wosisname.

The Shield Bug now rescued had alighted on the centre pages of this book and as you can see from the map above, also published in 1849 this is link to whole map (I produce it in a tube for a tenner although this is for walk in customers only) Bellvue Hill later became an extension of Plains of Waterloo.

I wonder why? After 1849 that is, the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, I think, so why more Plains after 1849?

One wonders, or does one? What on earth in 1849 the difference between a beer manufacturer and a brewer could be? Today it is reasonable to assume the manufacture of beer without the tedious and expensive business of brewing it, would be no problem, but in 1849? 

Billy Merrin, courtesy Ramsgate Library, should I explain further? Vide link 

Old picture wise I am still trying to get used to the different lighting at my desk

 Date wise if there is anything on the back it's beneath the card

 Why did it arrive nearly a month after it was written? Wilder Wales?

This one as you see heralds the swinging 60s

Work wise this is the link to pictures of the books that went out today


Walking back from the Pav aka Spoons this evening and thinking that the view from our table this link is to the photos on my camera card and most were taken sitting at my table there, you would have been hard pushed to get a table with a better view.

I remembered the view from the tables in the restaurant upstairs in The Royal, one of our favourites for Sunday lunch in the 60s and 70s. A bit of a mixed bag though, would you bring it all back? I am not sure the strippers, back bar downstairs, would go down well in our more politically correct society.

Of course the view is a bit of a complex one, looking at the sea, looking at the sea with beach and or harbour in the foreground are very different things.

The hydraulic rams for Ramsgate crosswall flapgate going in and a pilgrimage to Canterbury

 So is it the picture on the front or the writing on the back, what does it for you.

A bit of a butter side down day today

I don't think skies are my bag, I washed some sky onto this paining in Canterbury today only to have it fall face down on the pavement. Sponging the dirt off has streaked the tree into the the sky.

The craft of taking photos from a moving car on the road to Canterbury is not an exact one.

I did however manage to get some photos of working on the flapgate here in Ramsgate yesterday and I guess if I get time I will remove the worst of the photos.

This is the link to the photos on my SD card

Not much went out in the bookshop yesterday but

  here's the link

The bookshop is still reasonably busy although the school holidays have finished

 I think this is probably due partly to the rapidly declining shopping options here in the far southeast

I think there is some hope that the arts may in some way replace some of the shops that have gone.

I think Canterbury has lost more area of town centre retail space recently than any other town we visit.