Oh we do like to be beside the seaside – Margate
Margate’s a funny place. A bit like Southend, it’s a seaside resort that has seen better days. It’s a bit faded; the Dreamlands amusement park announced it was to close in 2003 (though it did keep going, in summer only, till the rollercoaster got burned down this year).
It doesn’t even have a decent football team. Margate FC plays in the Isthmian League, and if you haven’t heard of that, well, you’re in good company.
The main attractions would seem to be the old windmill, and the Shell Grotto – a mysterious place ‘discovered’ in 1835. (Some people apparently think it’s an ancient sun temple; myself, I think it looks exactly like the kind of mad Regency folly that was fashionable at the time, and the so-called discovery was a bit of PR spin.)
That’s not really enough to make you want to take the train down from London.
But recently, controversial Britart figure Tracy Emin has put a bit of pep into Margate. She originally came from the town, and though her art shows decided mixed feelings about the place, has supported the project for a Turner Contemporary gallery in the town (it’s currently planned for 2009).
And there are even ideas that Dreamlands could be made into a seaside heritage park, housing historic rides that have been saved from other now closed amusement parks.
Besides, jazz fans have a particular reason to turn up in Margate – the Big Sky Jazz Festival on July 25 and 27 and August 2.
How to get there: national railways from London Victoria or Charing Cross.
Photo credit: Matthew Venn on flickr
For a very different and stylish view go and look what Nardip Singh has put up on flickr
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