The Anniversary of Ramsgate’s Festival of Light

61 years ago today the crowds one hundred thousand people, according to the police, braved the wet weather and turned up for the switching on ceremony.

At the moment I am in the process of preparing a booklet about this with Dave Richards, we have 17 pictures of the illuminations and any help finding more would be appreciated.

The following is from the mayor’s speech given at the switching on ceremony:



“For many years Ramsgate has offered to its visitors all the usual amenities expected of a popular seaside resort, at the same time preserving the natural characteristics with which the town is endowed.

“Our first “publicity officer” of Victorian days – the artist Frith – saw to it that our sands were made famous the world over.

“Our Royal Harbour, now nearing its bi-centenery, has long been, and still is, a joy to those who love the sea and the little ships – so immortalised in 1940 when the little ships came to Ramsgate to play their gallant part in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Happy Holiday Ingredients.

“Our promenades, parks and cliffs have a special appeal.

“We cater fully for our friends who prefer the popular outdoor sports, be it bowls, tennis, hockey, cricket or football.

“We boast of our bracing air and our southern aspect. The hospitality of our people is proverbial. In fact, we claim all the ingredients of a happy holiday.

“And so, perhaps, we could have rested on our laurels, assured that our visitors would always come to us.

“But, if I may say so, that has not for many years been the attitude of the local governing body and other who have laboured for their town. It was, therefore, not altogether a surprise that with the advent of the Festival of Britain we should consider in what way we could utilise the charming setting of our harbour and the sea front to give enjoyment in a worthwhile fashion, to provide something new that would attract visitors from near and far, and enhance our reputation as a holiday town.

“This Festival of Light is the result.

“We have the glory of sun by day. We shall now have the beauty of light by night.

Ten Miles of Wire

“Aided by specialist firms, we have created the Festival from a blank piece of paper over many months. The Festival cannot be seen as a whole from any one point. Some ten miles of wire and 25,000 lamps have gone to make up its sections and we have still a little more to come.

“We may ponder over the beauty of the waterfall at Madeira-walk, or search out for our amusement our Alfie up to his many pranks; Mary, Mary, like perhaps so many of that name, quite contrary; the Pied Piper; the animal and bird sanctuary about our waterfall, or the West Cliff gardens, and such features as the monkery and others too numerous to mention at this moment. We believe that children of all ages will spend happy hours among these amusing and in some cases very artistic features, many of which are being seen for the first time.

A Co-operative Effort

“May I say here that the Festival of Light is a co-operative effort. During the autumn I approached a group of traders, mainly on the sea front to contribute towards the substantial capital expenditure involved in the scheme. I met with most enthusiastic response, and they have promised no less than £1,500 a year. With that great help, the council decided to go ahead, realising that the Festival of Light could be an annual attraction which would make Ramsgate the Blackpool of the South. In fact, in the years to come, Blackpool may even be known as the Ramsgate of the North………………..”

Margate regeneration? Some pictures of Margate

Before you read this I should point out that this is very much the batting around of forming thoughts.

I took a few pictures of Margate on Thursday, click on the link for them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/710/id4.htm I didn’t get as much time to take pictures and walk about as I would have liked, so this is a case of making a judgment on a short visit, but I do sense some improvement.

I am happy to accept corrections here from people who visit the centre of Margate often, but there did seem less empty shops, cleaner streets, and a much stronger police presence and generally more of a feeling of hope.

I have been looking at some of the pictures of Margate I have taken over the past three years, some of the links are below, and I still get the feeling that there is an improvement. It is obvious that I need to go over there and do a more thorough job, if only for historical record. Much more like the systematic ones I took of Northdown Road last year see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/NorthdownRoad/index.htm

This link takes you to some pictures I took of Margate in 2007

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id53.htm

These links to pictures of Margate taken inAugust 2009
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts4/id3.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts4/id4.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts4/id5.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts4/id6.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts4/id7.htm

these in November 2009

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id26.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id27.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id28.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id29.htm

Tree surgeon goes bananas in Ramsgate town centre.

Many thanks to reader Pat for pointing this one out to me, I don’t know that much about trees, but thought they were usually pruned in the middle of winter. However this isn’t a pruning but more of a total defoliation, just at the moment with this heat wave we could do with more cool shady places not less.

The picture (click on it and then click on it again to enlarge) says it all really, for some reason that I don’t know the run of modern shops and offices here is called The Argyle Centre.

As is so often the case with the council this is mostly about acting without any public information, if this drastic action was necessary for some reason, perhaps the trees are diseased, I just don’t know. What is abundantly clear is that a press release before the action, explaining to local people what is to be done and why, is all the difference between local government that people understand and that people see as good government taking people with them through hard times and the situation we have now, action without public information or consultation, viewed for the most part as bad government, arrogant and uninterested in the views and feelings of local people.

It is the government of Animal Farm, Brave New World, If and 1984, quite inappropriate and out of place in the twenty first century.

Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

Having had a minor operation a week ago, I think that I must have had rather a lot of anaesthetic, as I haven’t slept as much as I have during the last week since I was a teenager.

Anyway it seems to be wearing off a bit today, fortunately it’s my day off and I have got out taken a few pictures and spoken to a few people, so some old news and some new rumour.

First the Pleasurama surface drainage pipe is nearing completion and looks to be finished before the height of the summer season.

As you can see from the pictures it still looks as though sewage is leaking into the inner harbour, I have no way of confirming this

As I said before the main seafront car park has now been reduced to about twenty spaces, in the current economic situation I can’t think of anything more dreadful that could be done to bring the town to it’s knees.

Trading as I do in what I consider to be one of the worst sites in the town centre, in terms of economic viability for anything much I was concerned to see that The Portobello Restaurant in Harbour Parade Ramsgate has gone bust, I have always considered this to be one of the best trading sites in the town, I have to admit that I don’t see this as a good omen.

Word on the street is that the council have made moves towards granting The Preston Steam Trust security of tenure for The Clock House and are going to make the King George IV Maritime Heritage Pontoon available for heritage vessels again.

This is unsubstantiated and as ever with our council and matters that have an important effect on Ramsgate, it is always the people of Ramsgate that are the last to know anything.

Once again there are two boats being repaired on the numbers one and three slipways, something that seems to make a bit of a nonsense of the plans to close numbers two and three slipways.

Finally one of the late night takeaways a few doors down from my bookshop seems to have closed, I am not sure if this is for refurbishment or if it has gone.

Click on the link for the pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/n710/id5.htm

Thanet Tesco and the human environment and a bit of a ramble

In Thanet at the moment there are plans for two new Tesco stores, one in Margate, the subject of some controversy on several of the other Thanet blogs and one in Ramsgate where Busy B’s is in Hereson Road.

The one in Margate needs planning permission, however I doubt that that will be an obstacle, as the one in Ramsgate is going into an existing shop building it only needs planning permission for ancillaries, like signs and air-conditioning fans.

The strangest aspect of this though is the parking in this area, this part of Hereson Road already has a school in it, very dense and often dangerous on street parking and frankly no available extra parking at all.

Anyway from my point of view here the main question is what are Tesco up to, here in Ramsgate they have a history of causing damage to the town, both architectural and commercial, so my feelings about their latest projects are filled with scepticism.

Back in about 1970 they built what was then the largest supermarket in Ramsgate (the building is now Wilkinsons) this along with the other supermarkets did considerable damage to the town, closing butchers, bakers, fishmongers and the small specialist shops that thrived among the more essential town centre shops.

Because of this Ramsgate town centre started to contract, what happened next was the movements of the supermarkets out of town, something that eventually closed down most of Tesco’s rival supermarkets in the town.

Sometime around about fifteen years ago Ramsgate town centre hit an all time low, two of the biggest multiples, Tesco and Marks & Spencer, moved out and I believe the feeling within the guiding management of the big multiples was that the town was ill enough to be left to die.

From the large multiples point of view, what they would like to achieve is to have all of the advantages the wholesaler and the retailer. By this I mean they would really like to trade in huge out of town industrial units and have the retail customers drive to these central distribution units. This had been largely successful in America where small town centres and the associated communities have often been destroyed, with all of the associated environmental damage caused by people driving to get their shopping.

However some towns in the UK seem to have bucked this trend, Ramsgate is a case in point, the large retail units within the town are for the most part occupied and even a new greengrocer and fishmonger has opened.

Margate as a trading centre seems to have collapsed and has moved into a state that appears to be beyond hope.

Now one has to consider Tesco’s strategy for dealing with the situation in both of these towns, in Margate this seems to be to try to create a new shopping centre away from the remains of the town centre, where Tesco control the parking.

Parking is a very big issue here as the more that can be achieved in terms of reducing and controlling the parking close to the town centre the more chance there is to force people out of town for their shopping. It should be noted here that one aspect of the new plans for Dreamland is to remove Margate’s largest car park.

In Ramsgate however they seem to be trying a different approach, that looks like a series of satellites stores in areas of high-density population in the suburbs of the town.

As I have said one needs to look carefully at the ultimate motives of the big chain retailers and remember that when you spend your money with them you are supporting their intent, which is to destroy your environment as a human being. Most of us have a habitat that is called a town, where that habitat is damaged, even to the point that it becomes uncomfortable or even dangerous to us our first though should be, who benefits?

Council sell off six of the few remaining parking spaces for Ramsgate Main Sands

As you can see they are already being boarded off, presumably this is part of the council’s policy to promote tourism in Ramsgate this summer.

What with this and the whole Pleasurama site looking to be deserted and unused for the main summer season, it wouldn’t appear there is much more they could do to give Ramsgate a boost this year.

Click on the pictures and then click on them again to fully enlarge them.

Food for thought and a few pictures on the camera card

The first lot are Broadstairs last week see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/s710/id3.htm good coffee at the Albion Hotel but no free Wi Fi.

The moth pictured above was there too click on it to make it bigger and click on it again for even bigger, this is biology so completely out of my depth.

The next lot are a few out of the car window shots in the way to Deal, not me I was driving and can only blame my children getting hold of my camera http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/s710/id4.htm

The next lot are in Deal good straightforward reasonably priced food at the Royal Hotel, eaten outside, once again unfortunately no free Wi Fi again.

The other aspect of this visit was the Time Ball Tower Museum, well worth a visit, a real time capsule in more ways than one, see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/s710/id5.htm sorry the pictures got a bit muddled up.

Then on to Walmer Castle to cool off in the shade of the trees http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/s710/id6.htm

Pinch and a punch it’s the first of the month

Once again the statistics for the people who clicked on a link on another website during last month, in order to get here, this is the nearest I can get to a popularity count of the other local blogs, click on the link to view the statistics http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/done/id13.htm

Sorry this is a bit late today, I had a bit of a brush with the hospital today, this has left me on what they call voice rest meaning that I am not allowed to speak for a week.