Ramsgate Tunnels Air Raid Siren, war ramble old photos, painting in the Pav

 This was the main Grocer in Ramsgate, I guess the nearest equivalent today would be Waitrose, back before the invention of the supermarket equivalents don't quite work.

 This is it after it was bombed in the August 1940 air raid, back when I was a lad most of the groanups had done something or another in the war, they talked about the war a lot, drank weak beer a lot and watched a lot of TV.

I think to us they seemed to have stopped doing anything interesting at the end of the war, there were still a lot of bomb sites around but in the 50s and 60s it became obvious to us young pipple that if there was another world war it would be fairly short and very final.

Our interests were in Ban the Bomb or CND, the Vietnam War - cos of the musik - try some 'Country Joe and the Fish' on the tube.

 Air raids didn't mean that much to us as we were partly expecting one final nuclear air raid, with not much point in the sirens or shelters.

 Ramsgate with Dunkirk, Manston museums, the tunnels etc is still fairly focused on both world wars,

If you want this confirmed in pictures 

this is a link to a series of linked war related 

pages pictures from 2010

Back to today

a fairly quiet one

a few sad signs

bit of work on the new sea defences

until

Video of siren


We publish a book about Thanet's Air Raid Sirens

Here is the link 

as always I recommend coming into Michael's Bookshop, where I work here in Ramsgate and giving it a browse.

Some Margate air raid pictures

Here in the bookshop a lot of younger customers because of half term, pretty much the only people who seem to think young people don't read and buy books are older people who don't read and buy books themselves.

Here is the link to the pictures of the books we put out today

Supper in Wetherspoons aka Royal Victoria Pavilion Ramsgate where I added a couple of people, getting very hard to spot the difference with this sketch Link to bigger picture 

Margate Bank Holiday, Billy Childish Art Exhibition, Gasoline Ally Meltdown, Sauceless Seaside Photos,

Lazy Bank Holidaying, out from Ramsgate, off from the bookshop [closed] where to go? Meltdown? Would we be able to park, don't believe this stuff about not needing as much sleep when you are older. Our own teenagers didn't want to come, something about revision, A levels.

I looked at the virtual local paper The Isle of Thanet News and was struck by Carl Freedman Gallery Opens article and as I had already had press release from Turner Contemporary 'Join us this weekend for the opening of Seaside: Photographed' art won.

We drove over to Margate expecting gridlock and parking difficulty, the roads were quiet and we parked in Morrisons car park (lower level £6 for all day - 24 hrs £1 off with shopping from Morrisons) the upper level of this car park is short term.

Billy Childish at the Carl Freedman Gallery, this is very close to Morrisons, my brother lived in Union Crescent so I knew where to look 

For the rest of the photos of the Billy Childish exhibition click on this link 

Billy Childish is a bit Gustave Klimt, Vincent Van Gogh, type of kidney, if you like them you will probably like him. I do and so I did, very enjoyable I will go to this exhibition every time I visit Margate and the gallery is open. 

The pros are, good gallery space, well lit, I think led lighting that won't fade artworks, good exhibition, well displayed, courteous gallery staff. The cons, a bit low on ventilation for recent oils, no signage whatsoever so gallery looks closed when actually open. I think the building work is still in progress so I think it will improve. I have to say all round it was a much better exhibition than I expected and one I would travel to see.

Out of the exhibition and into Margate Bank Holiday and the Meltdown, nothing like as many bikes as last time I went which may have been several years ago. By the time I was a teenager in the late 60s and early 70s Mods and Rockers had mostly vanished I think we assumed they had turned into old people i.e. over 25s.

I personally benefited from the glut of discarded motorbikes which were very cheap, now I look at the various Nortons, B.S.A.s, Triumphs with mild affection

For the rest of the Meltdown and Margate photos click on this link 

Lunch and and a lunchtime sketch for me at Turner Contemporary Art Galley Cafe

So this watercolour sketch from the patio of Turner Contemporary gallery may need a bit of explaining. The fiver is for scale and this is all paint an 0 and a 000 brush, so fairly small and intricate, I tend to paint to a fixed scale and get out of the way of the bit of my brain between the eye and the hand. 

 This makes me interested in the areas that come out different to the reality taken by the camera. 

At the moment I am particularly interested in windows, reflection, populating watercolours with people and wosisname, so this one may develop, if I get some more time there.

On to 'Seaside: Photographed' at Turner Contemporary

Link to the rest of the photos

This is a lot of mostly old photos taken in different seaside towns, Not sure if the exhibition is the right format for this.

Quite a few are photos taken by beach photographs like the ones pictured above. The developing happened in the barrow and the holidaymakers paid for the development of photography.

Sunbeam in Margate being a leader in the field.

The next four photos being examples of their work

 Note the processing error in this one.

 although usually the standard is pretty good

Finally Back work in the bookshop tomorrow

Here is the link to the photos of the books we put out Saturday 

Margate Meltdown Tomorrow and a few pictures of previous Meltdowns Etc.

Back in the day I had several motorbikes the last one I had was was a Norton Dominator, 1958 88 Wideline 500 cc, like the one in the picture above although my one was scruffier. In the 1970s I enjoyed commuting to work from Ramsgate to Stevenage on various motorbikes.

Anyway I sometimes go to Margate Meltdown and look at the bikes although over the years my interests have moved from engineering to the arts.

Next are links to some photos of the 2011 Margate Meltdown.

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

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

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

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/meltdown/id6.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/meltdown/id7.htm

Canterbury today and on the sketching front I am still experimenting with both shop window reflections and populating paintings with people.

 The two Canterbury sketches on this sheet of paper which I folds up so it fits in my sketchbook which fits in my pocket started out as letterbox format but the people sort of fell into the other letterbox.

This is a detail

As you see I don't exactly suffer for art.

Next some pictures of Margate events

These are only labelled as Margate event

 The scaffold on the end of the pier blownup here is unusual, any ideas anyone?

Back in 2011 Dreamland hadn't opened but Carter's Steam Fair was on the Dreamland site so here are the photos of that.

Link 1

Link 2

Old Thanet photos, minor ramble

I'm writing this blog on the sundeck of The Royal Victoria Pavilion here in Ramsgate aka Wetherspoons. I can't really see the phone screen so excuse any typos.

Interesting to me that it should be functioning so well and I can't really understand why..

I think the message it sends out is that Ramsgate is over ripe for regeneration, if something is good enough then it doesn't just work but soon becomes as busy as it would be if the regression had in fact happened.

The old business of the three councils is an issue here, roughly speaking Thanet Council seem to be much more focused on Margate than they are on Ramsgate and Kent Council seem to be more focused on West Kent. This my be more down to my perception than reality, but this perception is supported by what other people say.

Two things that may help here are Thanet Council moving out of Margate and Ramsgate Council being lead by a different political party to Thanet Council. I also think the huge KCC county council may eventually be split into east and west Kent authorities.

I have worked, at various times, to try and get improvement for Ramsgate from both councils, but mostly this seems to antagonise them. I think that probably it is Ramsgate Town Council that could do something here.

As a town I think Ramsgate is also suffering partly from ageing individuals both inside and outside of government, who have been confused into thinking it has some sort of future as an industrial transport hub`.

On the internet front I find that I am once again using what was a very cheap phone in the way I once had to use a computer.

Here in the Bookshop after a very busy Saturday, I skived off during the busy bit, we will be closed on Monday as well as tomorrow, this is due to the bank holiday.

As ever I should stress here that the ability to use your smartphone for the majority of your ITC tasks is very useful when things go awry.

This is the link to the rest of today's photos interestingly to me is that because of the way the various aspects of Google I use synchronise, using an OTG connector to plug the camera's SD card in the phone means it backs up automatically.   

If I ever get the time I will get an I Phone and see how the Apple side of the fence works

 Now Island Vintage