A Bad Time for some Thanet Bookshops and some Thanet Archive Photos

 

This picture is of Saint Augustine's Abbey library in Ramsgate, the shelves are empty because it was taken after the monks left Ramsgate, link to more Saint Augustine's Abbey photos Just at the moment empty bookshelves in Thanet are on my mind.

Broadstairs Bookshop has just closed.

Moon Lane Books in Addington Street is closing on 22nd December 

Westgate’s children’s bookshop The Classroom will be shut by December link to news article

WH Smith is closing link to article

Here at Michel's Bookshop in Ramsgate we are still here with no plans to close. We are fairly busy local history books and secondhand books are already selling Christmas presents and it looks as though the pre-loved book is becoming an ideal and sustainable Christmas present.

Link to the latest books to come in to stock here at Michael's Bookshop

Of course independent bookshops have suffered in most towns and Thanet was no exception.

We do still have Book Bodega Harbour Street Ramsgate and The Margate Bookshop in the old town, Ellington Park charity bookshop, Old Bank Bookshop Margate, Monkton Nature Reserve bookshop, Waterstones at WC, The Works, Margate High St, Ramsgate Garden Centre and WC. WH Smith in Margate and WC. Have I missed anything?

Oh yes The Chapel in Broadstairs.

Historic pictures of Ramsgate and Margate plus a Ramble from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate

 

Click to expand old pictures I think that is the bucket dredger "Hope" in the background of this one

Rain today has stopped play here where I work at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate, this means I have time to write this blog post.

 

It is Ramsgate Day tomorrow and this is the link to the website 

It looks as though tomorrow will be wet too the website says "Adults can have a free sauna when the Sea Scrub Sauna brings its mobile sauna outside New Look"

Sorry I haven't finished writing this post, I wanted to get it linked to the local Facebook groups asap so people would know about Ramsgate Day.

Firstly I do try to post useful information and historical information and link to what seems like appropriate Facebook groups. Just recently this linking business is getting more difficult to achieve.

Local history wise we have been busy with people wanting to know the history of there house or family so there has been a lot of browsing old Thanet street directories and much studying of the historic maps on the walls here.

Link to the latest books to arrive at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate 

Thanet History and Photos of a Margate Art Afternoon

Some boats in Ramsgate Harbour around 1900 most of these would either be colliers bring coal for heat and the gasworks, for light and of course fishing boats.

This collier looks about 1920

Mist, fog, steam or all three makes this Ramsgate one a bit ghostly.

Diving gear in Ramsgate probably around 1920

This Margate passenger steamboat from London looks to be very early, around when the steamboats bringing mass tourism started in 1815

1907 postmark so before then

This post is mainly for my customers where I work at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate so a picture of our local history books this morning.

On to my Sunday off yesterday I woke up thinking about the pioneering photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. After having made some coffee, gone back to bed and used my phone to look at a lot of his photos, I did a quick watercolour sketch based on this one.

Like so many of the photos online, there is no title, in this case just the date 1932 which sounds about right.

Here is the watercolour sketch 

I got out the closest camera I have to one that Henri Cartier-Bresson would have used and set off to Margate on Sunday afternoon. The plan was to look at art galleries in the way a tourist would who had turned up and found nothing much at Turner Contemporary as the exhibitions are being changed over, the new one opening at the weekend.

So first Benjamin Senior at Carl Freedman Gallery, all photos will expand with a bit of clicking or tapping.

On to the old town

Anthony Giles Gallery

David Mullet 

Back to Ramsgate with not much daylight left so I did a quick sketch, influenced by what I'd seen, from Wetherspoons.

Where I work at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate we have the largest range of affordable art books in Kent so we do get to see a lot of artists anyway.

This is the link to pictures of the newly arrived books

 So if you've actually got this far I guess you deserve something or other. How did we do in Margate? Well to be honest pretty well, we went to look at art and there was a lot to see a lot we didn't see, we came away feeling we had got a decent afternoon and seen a lot of interesting pictures.