Old photo of Ramsgate around 1897

Click on the picture of Ramsgate to enlarge it.

I would think the date must be between 1895 because the Royal Albion Hotel has been replaced by National Westminster Bank

I think the building was completed around 1895 and the tower on the Granville is still tall I think this was shortened around 1900.

Anyone got any other pointers to the date.   

X marks the spot

People are so kind and I have just received by email some more amazing pictures this is the first

Whitfield Tower Revisited

I did a post about this tower earlier in the month and had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I had read something about it in one of my publications. It was in fact in the 1831 publication The Picturesque Pocket Companion To Margate Ramsgate Broadstairs & Parts Adjacent by William Kidd with woodcuts by G. W. Bonner, Woodcuts being favoured for this sort of guide as they can be printed with a platen press and therefore included in the text rather than having to be tipped in after the book is sewed.

Click here to see what Mr Kidd had to say about it and to look at Mr Bonners cut.

I have two copies of the original guide in stock as well as the cheap reprint.

1816 picture of the tower that was near St Peters

If memory serves me right this tower was supposed to mark the highest point on the Isle of Thanet, the fact that it wasn’t actually on the highest point in Thanet only goes to show.

I thought it was one of the most attractive of the old prints that I bought today.

Is this picture of Ramsgate harbour?

Many thanks to Alan Hardcastle who sent me this picture scanned from an old glass plate that he believes to Ramsgate harbour in 1916, I am not at all certain it’s Ramsgate, anyone got any ideas.

Ellison’s Entertainers

First called The Highwaymen, later known as Ellison’s Entertainers this troupe entertained at Ramsgate and Brighton that I know of.

Any more info would be appreciated click here for the pictures

Ramsgate Model Village

Some pictures of the model village today and there will be more to come soon, just one of our lost attractions. It occurs to me that pictures of old Ramsgate are a constant reminder of what has gone wrong.

Click here to view them

St Laurence or St Lawrence

I don’t know why St Laurence Church is normally spelt differently to St Lawrence village and district. The church is very old indeed it was founded in 1062 as a chapel of Minster. In 1175 Richard De Manston built the southwest porch and aisles on each side of the nave. The chapels on each side of the chancel were added in the early 1200s. St Lawrence was made a separate parish in 1275. The church had a major restoration in 1888 the four-dial clock being added at that time.

Click here for the pictures

Ramsgate Inner Harbour basin drained in 1912

This is the last of the series of pictures I bought last Sunday, that show work to the harbour.

The writing on it is fairly damaged but I think it deciphers to: showing berth (dry) in which the S “Saxon Queen” grounded on March. 4th 1912 – taken on the day of the Survey 20-3-12

I have examined the notice you can see in the picture with a glass, and it is revealed as saying:

RAMSGATE HARBOUR
CAUTION!
THE ABOVE WHITE TILES IN THE QUAY WALL
MARK THE END OF THIS SLIPWAY
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO HAVE VESSELS IN
OR PLACE THEM IN ANY WAY OVER THIS SLIPWAY
THAT IS TO THE EASWARD OF THIS NOTICE
H. E. INSKIP.
Harbour Master

If you chose to interpret the capital letters as shouting then Mr Inskip is shouting over the distance of a hundred years.

Underpinning at Ramsgate Harbour January 1909

I am assuming that this picture is of underpinning the crosswall, it is difficult to read all of the text on the back click here to see it.

I am certain about the following.

“On spring tides great …… is …….. from the water which ……. through the back of the wall. In some sections of the underpinning this water has had to be led through the new ……. in a pipe.”

It probably reads.

“On spring tides great pressure is experienced from the water which passes through the back of the wall. In some sections of the underpinning this water has had to be led through the new work in a pipe.”

Anyone got any better ideas?

Margate History Art

There has been quite a lot of comment on the blogs about Margate and attempts to regenerate it based around it becoming a modern art centre. What I am talking about here is modern art, not traditional art, I would say as people go I am more inclined to go to art galleries than most.

Frankly though the popularity of modern art is fairly limited, I know this from the amount books about it I sell relative to other subjects, however art galleries tend to be heavily subsidised and therefore entrance is free.

Now in the bookshop there is much more interest in history than modern art, when you include local history, military and transport history it is far and away the largest and most successful subject in the bookshop.

There are 33 bookcases of history in the bookshop and 3 bookcases of art about a shelf of which is modern art, and I would say there is about 1,000 times the interest in things historical as in modern art.

Now I am wondering if closing Margate Museum and putting all the resources into modern art is such a good idea without first engaging in a minor experiment, which is to make Margate Museum free for a bit and compare the visitor numbers with the heavily subsidised gallery in what was Marks and Spencer.

Well click here for the Turner Contemporary website or click here for some more old pictures of Margate what do you reckon?

Old pictures of Margate

Another batch of old pictures of Margate click here to look at them I am an still mulling over ideas about what could realistically done to stop the decline and still don’t think much could be achieved without some sort of national legislation to protect out towns.

More old pictures of Margate

Some more old pictures that I hope may offer a little cheer in these rather depressing times click here to look at them

I worked for Dreamland in the 70s as an engineer, in those days it was owned by Associated Leisure, they also owned the Lido and most of the amusement arcades in the town.

At that time everyone was aware of a steady decline both in Margate and in Ramsgate, mostly caused by cheap foreign holidays. The Lido and Cliftonville were already in a state of considerable decline, frankly I don’t think at the time anyone ever really thought that the decline could be prevented, so no one ever got as far as looking for realistic solutions, frankly now it’s all but too late and some realistic solutions must be found.

Now it would seem that the cheap foreign holiday might soon become a thing of the past and air travel an environmentally expensive luxury, so the tourists may return again if there is anything for them to return to.

Margate

Looking around the local blogs and news sites Margate has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently, so I thought a few old pictures of the town would add a little cheer to an otherwise rather bleak situation. Click here to look at the pictures