Ramsgate: The town and its seaside heritage

by Geraint Franklin, Allan Brodie (Primary Contributor), Geraint Franklin

For over 250 years people have headed to Ramsgate for a day at the seaside - and discovered much more in the process. This book charts Ramsgate's transformation from quiet fishing village to a 'harbour of refuge' and seaside resort, driven by the town's strategic position on the east Kent coast. Once visited by a handful of intrepid sea bathers, improvements in passenger boats and the arrival in 1846 of the railway opened up the resort to thousands of holidaymakers, necessitating new bathing facilities and entertainment venues. Early 19th century Ramsgate was patronised by royalty and boasted up-to-date terraces, crescents and squares. The town attracted minority faith communities, represented by the synagogue completed in 1833 for Sir Moses Montefiore and A. W. N. Pugin's Roman Catholic church of St Augustine (1845-50). This wide-ranging, accessible study tells the story of Ramsgate's rich maritime and seaside heritage. It also profiles the challenges and opportunities that the
town faces today in seeking to redefine itself as an attractive place to visit, live and work. the town and its seaside heritage combines documentary research with insights derived from the town's fascinating architectural heritage, illustrated with new and archival photographs.

176 pages, Paperback

Published July 21, 2020

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are interested in Ramsgate, a harbour town on the Thanet Coast (South-Eastern England), then you will be interested in this guide to the history of its buildings published by Historic England. It is also a back door entrance into British social history.

The book is well written and very well illustrated. It gives a good sense of the town's historic trajectory. It has many hidden 'gems', not least because the notable Victorian Gothic architect Augustus Pugin was highly active in the town. He created the notable St. Augustine's Abbey.

Sadly the local library and museum (no doubt with mentions of my family) burned down a few years ago so the book has had to rely on a variety of amateur and external sources. From this perspective its seamless narrative is an achievement.

As with so many now decaying British seaside towns, the story is one of a rather small fishing and farming village in the eighteenth century capturing the early middle class tourist trade and then developing apace until the collapse of working class tourism with the packaged holiday overseas.

Perhaps its most interesting period was the Napoleonic era when it was a jumping off point for the military. Warfare plays a more tragic role in the Second World War when it was as much in the front line of a bombing war as any town is in the Donbas during the current Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

I partially grew up in the town during my childhood and adolescence so the terrain is and the legends are familiar to me - interwar mass tourism, family hiding in tunnels from bombing raids, Stuka raids on the harbour, slowly unravelling post-war depression, the unusual Jewish commitment to the town.

The purpose of the book is to help build awareness of its potential although it is still just a little too far from London by train to become fully gentrified. This may change with increased home-working. I cannot easily see this prospect objectively. Its run-down aspects were always attractive to me.

I will not, however, be surprised to see it 'improve' again even if it will be one of the few places when, on an exceptionally clear day, you might see European Generals scanning your location from the French cliff tops. The 'war' was very 'real' in our family as much as it was in the East End.