Shopping Ramsgate and Northdown Road

 

Starting in Ramsgate High Street in the past 

Of course contemporary and future shopping for me is mostly bookshops 

If like me you lived in Thanet, back in the day, then you only have to think of past shopping and images of Northdown Road come to mind.

For us in the 1960s and 1970s the main shopping areas were Ramsgate and Northdown Road although we also regularly did Canterbury and Deal too.

With shops, far and away the largest expense is wages, this is followed by rent and a long way down the line rates and until recently heat and light.

So back in the good old days our wonderful were mostly based on an army of shop assistants, mostly female, who had to work for much less than what we would call a living wage.   

Now of course we have all of these shops which just aren't economical to open. 

To some extent this is overcome by charity shops that have free labour and free stock.

The other thing we have is people investing their own money and working in their own shops.

In Northdown Road this is mostly secondhand shops and places to eat and drink.

Back in 1987 I decided to rent a cheap shop in Ramsgate and open it up as a secondhand bookshop, since the shop is still going I guess over the years I did some things right.

Anyway yesterday I thought I would go off to Northdown Road and do some shopping.

On the whole I think the situation there has improved over the last few years.

Here are some pictures of Northdown Road we took yesterday

I have done this before so if you are interested. 

Here are the links to the  pictures I took on Saturday 3^rd June 2017

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad2017/

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad2017/id3.htm


 Back in August 2009 I took a series of pictures of Northdown Road in Margate, below are the links to the pages of pictures I took then.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/id3.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/id4.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/id5.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/id9.htm

In May 2011 I didn’t do it quite so comprehensively, I only did the middle bit, these links take you to those pictures.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad2/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad2/id3.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad2/id4.htm

I hardly managed to buy any books in Northdown Road but did manage to buy some later when I went down into Margate.

Obviously there has been a considerable improvement in Northdown Road, but as I don't buy much in the way of Bric-à-brac, old furniture and antiques combined with there being hardly any books for sale in the shops I visited I found it very hard to judge. Normally a lot of the antiques shops I visit have plenty of books and normally I buy quite a lot.

I did visit The Margate Bookshop  this is a new bookshop and although small it has a very good stock and is worth a visit if you buy new books.

Today of course I am back at work in Michel's Bookshop in Ramsgate where we are still busy, I had expected business to slacken off when the schools went back but it hasn't really.

Here is the link to the books we put out for sale today