Ramsgate Ferry Port

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Traveler Unloxit 2024
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- Apr 9, 2024, 12:00pm
- 🌬 10 °C
- Altitude: 19 m
- England Ramsgate Ramsgate Ferry Port 51.332304, 1.41873251°19’56” N 1°25’7” E
Day 100
DFL again
April 9 in England ⋅ 🌬 10 °C
Once again I'm in Ramsgate, Kent, joining the other DFL (down from London) types. As before, accommodation is at the peerless Royal Temple Yacht Club, with its magnificent view of the harbour---which our family used in our yachtie days. At quayside level is the Victorian sailors' church, a beautiful Victorian oasis of peace and quietness.

More secular delights can be found with views of the beach---not fashionable but good and sandy---from the former casino. It's been converted into a Wetherspoons pub, the largest in the chain and very elegant it is too. A far cry from when I visited it in 2021, with Covid restrictions forcing me to order not from the bar but on the app---which I couldn't get to work! There's also time for a more traditional pub, the Horse and Groom, hidden in a back street in the town centre.

Ramsgate always fascinates me with its intimate squares and gardens, that could almost be in Islington or even Kensington. The architecture is DFL too! The final shot is of a Victorian block of flats designed by the son of Augustus Pugin, architect of the Houses of Parliament and one-time Ramsgate resident. Its forbidding profile might be more suited to a prison or an asylum. Regrettably some of the block is empty and it all goes to show how even in this era of housing shortages there is so much wastage. But to look at, the building does have a je ne sais quoi.Read more
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Traveler Loxit version 2.0
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- Oct 6, 2020, 12:00pm
- ⛅ 14 °C
- Altitude: 16 m
- England Ramsgate Ramsgate Ferry Port 51.332247, 1.41878951°19’56” N 1°25’8” E
Day 214
On another Thanet
October 6, 2020 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
After a month in London I'm headed for the coast again but in the other direction from Cornwall---east Kent. I know Ramsgate, a town of about 40,000 people, from family trips long ago on my father's boat. On one famous occasion, after a gruelling 12 hours across the Thames estuary from the boat's home port in Essex, the helmsperson failed to stop our boat in time to prevent the bowsprit smashing through the window of a moored boat. History doesn't record the reaction of that boat's owner.

This time I am staying on dry land but the harbour is still a great attraction. The work of engineer John Smeaton, it dates from the late 1700s to reinforce defences against the Napoleonic forces and indeed, the French coast can still be seen on a clear day. All kinds of dignitaries have stayed here, from George IV (who gave the town royal status), Princess Victoria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Vincent van Gogh. The reformer Elizabeth Fry attended to the needs of female convicts bound for the colonies and supplied each of them with clothing and a Bible.

The first two pictures show the opposite ends of golden hour---a gorgeous sunrise over the harbour, and the lighthouse in late afternoon. What follows is an image of the 200-year-old clock house where Ramsgate's own meridian was established as 5 minutes 41 seconds ahead of that of Greenwich. Nearby is the town beach where in the distance, swimmers can be seen emerging fearlessly from the October water.

The town also boasts some beautiful early 19th century squares that wouldn't be out of place in Islington and their names are, if anything, more fanciful. One is La Belle Alliance Square, with the Camden Arm (sic) at one corner. The S fell off but no arm in that! Another is Liverpool Lawn, whose connection with Merseyside is a former Prime Minister of that name. One could buy a house here for a third of the London equivalent and be within a two-hour commute of the Big Smoke.Read more
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Traveler Unloxit 2021
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- Jun 6, 2021, 12:00pm
- ☀️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 34 m
- England Ramsgate Ramsgate Ferry Port 51.331077, 1.41809351°19’52” N 1°25’5” E
Day 1
Green shoots in Thanet
June 6, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Almost 6 months have passed since I spent a night away from home. It was a difficult winter with a long lockdown and there's no certainty of it being the final one. However in early June, summer has burst upon us and I choose to make my first escape revisiting Ramsgate, on the Isle of Thanet.

It's an unpretentious place to the extent of being sadly neglected with too many empty shop fronts in the town centre. With booming resorts like Brighton and Southwold in their different ways, there's not enough to go round and Ramsgate could do with a lift, especially since the ferry services to France were discontinued. Which isn't to say Ramsgate lacks charm. On the contrary; the harbour is scenic, especially when viewed from above, and there's an air of a place waiting to be discovered. Best savoured now, before this happens.

Besides the harbour views, there's an arcade beneath the road sweeping up to the west, hosting cafes and chandlers for yachties. Ramsgate being a hilly place, there's a Continental-looking flight of steps leading from one level to the next. And an abandoned Art Deco lift shaft hosting some creative street art.

Along with the harbour came the creation of some wonderful terraces dating from around 1800 which wouldn't be out of place in parts of London. One of them, the quaintly-named Liverpool Lawn, is an echo of the road of the same name and period in Islington, London and named after Lord Liverpool.Read more
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