Pleasurama catch 22½

Having had a bit of a chat with various people involved in the Pleasurama development, it seems that a rather peculiar catch situation is developing. This is because the council granted planning permission for a building that doesn’t actually fit in the space available on the site. Now the job of amending the plans so the building does have been passed to yet another of PRCs architects, who faces a difficult problem.

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is only room for a 4 story building, where planning permission has been granted for a 5 story building. Taking out a whole floor, the flats that would have been contained in it and would have sold for over £6 million, is hardly going to be popular with the developer. There is also the problem that any building, that is going to fit in the space available, will be so different from the plans that were passed that new planning permission will have to be sought. As the building lies in a high-risk flood zone any new planning application will mean that the environment agency would now insist on a flood risk assessment and proper emergency escapes to the cliff top.

There is also the added complication that with a new planning application, it would seem likely that the council would insist on a much higher quality of build, especially in terms of traditional building materials.

I gather that some rather unusual plans have been drawn where the road at the back and some of the car park has been raised, this is to deal with the problem of the sea sweeping round the back of the building in a storm. There has also some suggestion of a strengthened glass front, for the conference centre, hotel and other businesses, I wonder if glass sea defences could catch on elsewhere. This will have to be pretty thick glass I should think, to deal with the eventualities of a tidal surge storm, in the 1953 storm a 12 ton crane was picked up by the wave action, from where it had been working on the beach and deposited on the promenade where the new building will be.

Perhaps if the China Gateway application is passed later this week, in five years time the plans will have made it to the desk of the same architect at PRC for a novel solution.

The development now has its own website click here to view one would have thought after 5 years of local interest it would have a little more information on it.

Old Ramsgate A Trip Down Memory Lane Ramsgate Entertains

I have just received stock of Ralph Hoult’s new book “Old Ramsgate A Trip Down Memory Lane Ramsgate Entertains” A5 stapled booklet 108 pages price £5.99. It has plenty of Ramsgate pictures that I haven’t seen before, and contains plenty of information about Ramsgate’s entertainment venues and entertainers, much of which I didn’t know.

Ralph has left his photography studio and local history museum in King Street and is now part of the Granville Theatre team, where he gives local history shows.

Below the contents page from his book to give you some more idea of what it’s about.

Page 1 An introduction with the words of Charles Dickens’s Tuggs’s of Ramsgate.
Page 2 The great entertainer John Le Messurier A man of Ramsgate.
Page 5 The Granville Theatre The Diamond Jubilee.
Page 8 The Granville Theatre site before the arrival of our Theatre.
Page 10 The Granville Bandstand and a change in Granville House.
Page 13 The Granville Theatre and the Seafront.
Page 16 Granville House and Theatre.
Page 1 9 The Granville Theatre today.
Page 21 Granville Theatre to the Royal Victoria Pavilion.
Page 24 The Pavilion was all things Entertaining.
Page 27 Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.
Page 30 That’s Entertainment.
Page 33 The Palace Theatre in the High Street.
Page 35 The Palace Cinema same building just a few years later.
Page 38 The Palace Theatre and there’s more.
Page 41 The Picture House is now Super Drug
Page 44 From the Picture House to the Kings Cinema.
Page 46 We come along on Saturday morning to the Odeon.
Page 49 The first Ramsgate Movie House.
Page 52 Entertainments from the events on the sands.
Page 55 The Community created Entertainment.
Page 59 Ramsgate Youth Entertains.
Page 61 From Theatre to Racing on the Prom.
Page 64 Ramsgate Sands Entertain.
Page 67 Special Events are also Entertainment.
Page 69 Back to the seafront.
Page 72 The Bounty and Magical Mystery Tours.
Page 75 The Coronation Ballroom best in the South.
Page 78 Ramsgate Carnival.
Page 81 The 1934 Ramsgate Pageant in Ellington Park.
Page 84 Some more Bandstands.
Page 86 An Aerial view of the bandstand.
Page 89 The West Cliff Hall at its best.
Page 91 The show must go on.
Page 94 The Granville Theatre 900 seat theatre.
Page 98 Our Thanks.
Page 102 World Class Granville Performers.

The Log of a Sky Pilot

It being a wet and windy Sunday my mind turned to the Rev T Stanley Treanor the Missions to Seamen Chaplain for the Downs in late Victorian times. He wrote three books about the Goodwin Sands the first being “Heroes of the Goodwin sands” which is mainly about the work of the Deal, Walmer and Ramsgate Lifeboats, it is already in print published by another publisher. The next being “The Log of a Sky Pilot” and then “The Cry From the Sea and the Answer From the Shore” both reprinted by me.

Treanor and his fellow crew members launched their open boat by sliding it down Deal beach on greased planks often jumping in at the last moment and getting the sail up before they were tossed back onto the beach by the waves. It is recorded that in one year he spent 250 days at sea, visited 400 homes and 890 ships. His work as a priest involved visiting the ships that were waiting off our coast for the weather to improve enough for them to continue on their voyages.

Here are some sample pages you may not feel so bad about the weather having read them, especially if like me you are in the warm and dry.

The Cry From The Sea and the Answer From the Shore

The Log of a Sky Pilot

Folkestone and Its Neighbourhood

I am just completing a reprint of the book A Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone and Its Neighbourhood , with Gleanings from the Municipal Records by S J Mackie.

I have used the 1883 edition which has Gleanings from the Municipal Records added.

I have published the first 100 pages on the web click here to read them

I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet and am not really certain how significant it is, in terms of Folkestone’s history, so any help on that would be appreciated, as I should really write some sort of introduction to it.

Many thanks to Martin Easdown, author of several books that I publish, who provided the cover illustrations.

Memorials of the Goodwin Sands

This book is a truly remarkable account of the Goodwin Sands; Mr Byng Gattie brings to life our history and tradition of, smuggling, foying, hovelling, sea rescue and the amazing attempts to build on this vast unstable sandbank.

In the mythology of this area the Goodwins were formed by The County of Kent's equivalent of Atlantis. They were probably the remains of what the Roman writers called “Infera Insula” (Low Island), a victim of rising sea levels. What was left was a massive treacherous shifting sandbank in one of the world's busiest seaways.

For those of us in the seafaring towns on the southeast coast of England they have done much to form the history of our people. Having one of the world's greatest shipping hazards lying just off our coast has lead to a history of brave rescues many accounts of which can be found in this book. Local seamen with an exact understanding of the position of the sands and the depth of water over various parts of them were found difficult to follow by interested members of His or Her majesties customs. I was interested to find that Mr Byng Gattie's sympathies were with the smuggler, I suspect he enjoyed the odd little luxury devoid of duty.

In the courage endowed with the ignorance of youth I have myself had the odd scrape involving the sands and various ancient vessels. Fortunately though nothing serious enough to involve the rescue services, more by luck than judgement though I admit.

Here in Ramsgate, there has at various times, been speculation that the Goodwins may shift our way, leaving the town several miles inland. Historically two previous port towns in this area (The Port of Sandwich and “Portus Rutupinus” the chief port of Roman Britain) have been stranded inland, so it may not be such an unlikely conjecture, as it first seems.

Click here to read some of the book.

Blog gone?

Anyone any idea what has happened to Thanet coast life

The cost of Ramsgate town council

The council tax for a typical band D property in Thanet was £1,336.64 last year this would be likely have added to it about £35 after three years to pay for the town council. What sort of thing would we be likely to get for this? I suppose the most recent tangible local town council achievement is that Broadstairs town council has managed to save Crampton tower museum, while here in Ramsgate The Maritime Museum has now closed.

You may be aware of various initiatives that relate to Ramsgate in the past, these include:
The demolition of the marina swimming pool;
The demolition of the adjacent Victorian theatre;
The removal of the majority of the beach for port building materials;
The rejection of the sea life centre,
The closing of the royal Victoria pavilion sun deck,
The efforts to provide the world war 2 museum in the tunnel.
The concreting over of most of the parking on the sea front
The closing of the model village
The removal of the tourist information centre to where tourists are unlikely to find it
The removal of all the beach huts.
The closure of the Motor Museum.
The fiasco over turning the hoverport into a leisure complex with ski slope excreta.
The Pleasurama fiasco.
Losing Iota to Margate.Have I missed anything?

Well I notice that Broadstairs, with a town council doesn’t seem to have fared so badly, so I am going to cough up my 60p a week without complaint and hope that they manage to protect us from some of the worst ravages.

There is an article about this in The Thanet Times this week click here to read it.

War in the Bookshop

Today pictures of the military books on the shelves in the bookshop, you have to appreciate that this doesn’t include military maritime or military aviation.

Book prices in this section vary between about £1 and about £15 the average probably being about £5, I am always keen to buy this type of quality military books, I also offer an exchange voucher scheme and pay more in exchange than in cash.

Some of the books in this section are new but reduced considerably in price, I tend to buy up reps samples bankrupt stock and the like, as I can’t get enough secondhand stock to supply the demand.

We are still busier than usual something I can only put down to the economic downturn, I think several things are happening because of it. The person who wouldn’t have thought twice about going to Waterstones or Smiths a couple of months ago and spending £20 to £30 on a military book, is now making the extra effort to come here and buy similar much cheaper. I am getting offered better stock as people sell their books to pay for essentials. People are going out less and therefore doing more reading.

Click here to look at our military books photographed today.