Saturday 31 August 2019

Ann Palmer at York Street Gallery in Ramsgate

The current exhibition is by - Ann Palmer 28 Aug 2019 - 4 Sept 2019







Thursday 29 August 2019

Postcards of Thanet, Margate Bookshops, Ramsgate cliff

 First this postcard posted in 1916 fro you to decode
 The writing on the back
a closeup of the writing on the front

 and one to Ethel in 1931








Well of course if they haven't been used then it isn't so good, is it?

We visited the newly opened Margate Bookshop

Link to their facebook page  link to goggle page

This is a predominantly new bookshop, a local venture well worth supporting, more photos on the link to the camera card later in this post.


The old Bank Bookshop

Link to their google page

This is a good secondhand charity bookshop, well worth a visit.


 Hooked on Books, general secondhand bookshop. Which is sadly closing on the 21st September.

link to their google page

One up one down, the bookshop world is tenuous, all in all a bit of a tricky business.

Here in Ramsgate at Michael's Bookshop where I work, visiting other bookshops is something I consider to be part of the job.

Link to our google page

The world of bookselling is an ever changing one and has been since I first became involved in it about 50 years ago. The worst of the changes to the bookshops that sell new books was the end of the Net Book Agreement, this resulted in the closure of most of the small independent bookshops. The Knock on effect being a considerable breakdown in the relationship between the writer and the reader and the end of the blooming of literary fiction in the UK.

Anyway here is the link to the pictures of the books we put out yesterday

I promise to update my East Kent bookshops leaflet, on the whole more closures than openings I'm afraid.

On to the Pleasurama cliff facade, which isn't looking too good at the moment. The patches on the front are the tell tale signs of water getting behind the facade and small collapses of the chalk behind the facade.

The concrete cliff facade or cliff wall isn't a support structure for the cliff, but is there to prevent the chalk from weathering, weathering is mostly the process of water damaging the structural integrity of the chalk, something exasperated when the water in the chalk freezes.

Essentially the cliff behind the Pleasurama site is in a bad state for a number of reasons, tunnelling for HMS Fervent, naval guns installed in the top of the cliff during both world wars, the poor condition of the cliff top surfaces, being the main ones.   

 This is the worse looking part.
   
I would expect leaking pipes to be behind the problem here.

here is the link to all the pictures on my camera card for the last couple of days

Tuesday 27 August 2019

Margate photos 1998 and 1997 Flowing Bowl Cherry orchard demolition and aerial views of Ramsgate









 Sorry about this one, someone sent me the photos for the blog and I managed to lose them (ITC fail) now I have found the photos but - you guessed I have lost the email so don't know who sent them.








 With the aerial shots I have lost track of the ones I have published recently, so look the other way if you have to.











 Most of this is removing the remains of the jetty after the 1987 hurricane, some say it was Michael Fish's fault.
















It's far too hot to work so I have been huddled over the aircon reading, among other things The Sketch for sometime in 1907. I thought I would share a bit with you. This is only 112 years ago and a fair proportion of it if published today could get the photographer and participants into trouble.

Some books did get priced and put out for sale
Photos of the books









I am considering a cartoon, finding features etc of guess who