Having been incarcerated for the majority of last weekend I decided on Friday night that rather than catch a train over to Margate the following morning, I would walk. The forecast was for a bright, breezy day and it was not far wrong. I woke up late, almost three hours after I would normally rise on a weekday. After downing a large mug of tea, I set off for the seafront wearing a quantity of layers sufficient for Artic exploration.
Most visitors would consider Viking Bay to be the one and only beach in Broadstairs. It is just two minutes from my front door. The bay is both deep and sheltered, one of the first places in the UK to witness the sun rising each morning. In fact there are seven beaches in Broadstairs and we’ll be visiting five of them on this walk. All have their merits and each is endowed with a copious amount of soft sand. A bund is scraped up annually across Viking Bay to prevent the sea from inundating beach huts and other leisure facilities. A few years ago we had some tremendously high spring tides which caused a lot of damage. The bund is hugely popular with children (and some adults), who love to scramble up one side and roll down the other. By Easter it has been worn down to a low ridge. The sand is then bulldozed to make the beach smooth again.
In these days of tightening budgets we are fortunate that the local council keep the beach so immaculately clean and safe. We are less fortunate in that some visitors treat Viking Bay like an open-air dustbin in the summer. Only the seagulls are impressed by this careless behaviour. It makes me sad to see all the litter left behind when there’s ample provision made for rubbish on the beach and elsewhere in town. In winter the bay is the preserve of dog walkers and hardy families looking to blow away the cobwebs. We very rarely experience rough seas and more often than not the sea is calm. The RNLI provide state-of-the-art lifeguarding facilities here and at Stone Bay, Joss Bay and Botany Bay.
Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor to Broadstairs between 1837 and 1859. He referred to the town as ‘Our English Watering Place’, remarking ‘You cannot think how delightful and fresh the place is and how good the walks’. I can only agree. A reincarnated Dickens would find the older parts of Broadstairs little changed since he left. He certainly wouldn’t have much difficultly recalling his old haunts since most residents take great pride in advertising the fact that he once took lodgings in their homes. A few are less concerned about boasting. My own home, The Watch House, would have been very new during Dickens’ time, and would have stood on the very edge of town in a plot that was once an orchard.
It was at Bleak House, then known as Fort House, that Dickens completed David Copperfield. The bay window behind his writing desk can been seen on the far right of the building. He referred to the house as his ‘airy nest’. In those days fields of waving corn lay beyond Fort House, but now the urban sprawl continues almost unabated until Margate begins. Bleak House has been for sale almost permanently for the last ten years and is still available to anyone with £2.5M burning a hole in their pocket. Sadly the gardens are not well maintained and a big chunk of land was sold off some years ago for a failed building project. I’d love to get my hands on this historic pile. It reeks of needing some TLC and the gardens could be remarkable if taken in hand.
I am still but a mere ten minutes from home, so I need to crack on if I am to reach Margate by lunchtime. Walking north from Bleak House, one very quickly reaches Stone Bay, which is vastly preferable to Viking Bay on a busy day in August. Beneath the cliffs, in front of the green fence, hundreds of beach huts will have appeared by Easter, many of them gaily adored with stripes or meticulously painted murals. It’s to Stone Bay and Dumpton Gap further south that locals flock in summer. The atmosphere is always friendly and there’s plenty of room to spread out for ball games.
The Eastern Esplanade offers lovely views of Stone Bay and free parking for those who don’t wish to pay the high prices in town. There are steps down to the beach in the middle of the sandy beach and at the far end. Deep crevasses were cut through the chalk cliffs hundreds of years ago, not to ease the passage of tourists to and from the beach, but so that farmers could gather seaweed to fertilise their fields. The flints that built my house probably came from Stone Bay.
Fulmars nest just beneath the top of the cliff at the end of Stone Bay, where shallow soil meets solid chalk. This is where Sir Edmund Vesty, food producer, founder of the Blue Star shipping line and great-great-grandfather of Tom Hiddleston built his home. The Italianate Thanet Place is now divided into flats and the terraced gardens built over. Many of the houses on the private North Foreland Estate had their own access to the beach via private staircases cut through the chalk cliff. These are mostly disused, apart from one, very famous example.
Before I explain further, here’s one of my favourite houses in Broadstairs. A little bit of arts and crafts magic sandwiched between properties of limited architectural merit. It’s completely charming and stylistically something of a rarity in these parts. There are lots of interesting plants and trees in the garden too.
Alas the current fashion in the more upmarket areas of Broadstairs is either to ‘remodel’ properties such as this, or to pull them down and replace them with structures such as the one below. I am sorry if this happens to be your home, but you are welcome to it. I daresay the owners feel they are the living embodiment of the Grand Designs era, but quite what anyone finds appealing about living in soulless steel and render box with huge lifeless windows I cannot comprehend.
To make matters worse, the requirement to display between 5 and 7 expensive German cars in front of these houses leaves precious little room for gardens. Thank heavens for phormiums, the only plant that seems to have made it into the austere architects’ repertoire. I’ve no doubt that residents of the North Foreland Estate feel they have made it, but with a choice between mutilated Edwardian and grotesque modern, I think I’ll stay in town, thank you very much.
One benefit the owners of these lavish homes have is private access to the beach via a staircase cut through the cliffs. It’s said that these are the 39 steps that inspired the title of John Buchan’s famous thriller. True enough, Buchan did spend time convalescing in Broadstairs and his son recalls that his sister found a wooden staircase in the grounds of his private nursing home, which led down to the beach. Whether or not these are exactly the same stairs I don’t know, but the story is a good one and part of Broadstairs’ fascinating history.
After North Foreland comes Joss Bay, one of the few beaches in Thanet where one might surf if one was so inclined. There is a surf school and little cafe. Strong easterly winds over the last two winters have pushed the golden sand high up against the cliffs. From here one can enjoy a great view of activity in the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Lichen is not something one sees a great deal of in Thanet. The air is clean enough, but the climate is quite dry and there are very few woods or trees. However, along a stretch of cycle path leading up to Kingsgate the hawthorns and privets are smothered in both yellow and silver-grey lichen.
So we come to Kingsgate Bay, home of an extraordinary collection of buildings commissioned by Lord Holland, the Right Hon. Henry Fox, a highly successful Whig politician with a reputation for cunning and unscrupulousness. Lord Holland was immensely wealthy and went to town with building both his own house (below) and a series follies in the grounds, one of which was Kingsgate Castle. At the time it was unusual to build a stately home, which this surely was, facing directly out to sea. Holland House was originally approached through a stone arch originally known as Barthelmas Gate and renamed King’s Gate after the forced landing of King Charles II on the beach due to a storm on 30th June 1683.
Although Holland House is now much altered and divided into smaller properties, the enormous 12-pillared portico removed, it’s still possible to appreciate what a handsome property it once was. The park which sat before the house has been eroded away leaving only room for parking spaces and a road before the cliff edge.
Time has treated Kingsgate Castle rather better, although it now teeters above the bay on cliffs heavily reinforced by concrete. The ‘castle’, which has never defended anything, was conceived as a stable block. When Lord Holland’s estates were sold following his death, John Lubbock, an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath, rebuilt the castle as a comfortable home befitting a freshly minted Baron. Lubbock made significant contributions to archaeology, ethnography, and several branches of biology. He was a friend of Charles Darwin and coined the terms “Palaeolithic” and “Neolithic” to differentiate the Old and New Stone Ages.
Even on a warm summer’s day you’ll find almost no-one on Kingsgate beach owing to its relative inaccessibility and lack of facilities. However, it’s very well worth the walk from either Joss Bay to the south or Botany Bay to the north. The sand is pristine and the sea is calm and shallow.
The real wonder of Kingsgate bay is the natural arch which sits on a promontory to the left as one looks out to sea. The blocky structure of the gleaming white chalk is absolutely fascinating to observe, and the wave-cut plateau is home to an abundance of whelks, mussels and other sea-life.
From the other side of the arch one may look back towards Holland House and appreciate something of how impressive it once was.
Passing through the arch I am now in Botany Bay. There’s another cutting through the cliff which ends in a series of elongated chalk steps. It’s a flight like this that might have given Broadstairs its name, although it might also have been the whiteness of the rock – Bright Stone, leading to Bradstowe, leading to Broadstairs.
Botany Bay is so named because if smugglers were caught with contraband on the beach they were transported to Australia to reflect on the error of their ways. In 1769 smuggler Joss Snelling, after whom Joss Bay is named, was caught on the beach by the Revenue Patrol. After a fight, dubbed ‘The Battle of Botany Bay’ he escaped and survived to become an old man. So thorough was his rehabilitation that he was later introduced to a young Princess Victoria on a visit to the area. Joss Snelling died in 1837.
If you have not visited Botany Bay, you will almost certainly have seen it on film or TV. The pristine sands and white cliffs are almost constantly used as a location by brands as diverse as McDonalds and Burberry. It’s a long time since I’ve done this walk and I had forgotten how splendid the beach is. The sand is fine, clean and soft and the sea is perfect for paddling in. Thanks to repeated inclusion in ‘best beach’ line ups, Botany Bay is much more popular than any of its neighbours. Don’t let that put you off visiting, as it’s worth the drive through ‘bunglow hell’ (as Him Indoors used to call it) to get there.
At the end of Botany Bay is a low headland named Foreness Point. This unassuming feature marks the entrance to the Thames estuary. Beyond here lies Palm Bay and the beaches of Margate. This is where I generally start to tire, so I’m never sure if it’s my lack of energy, the fact that I prefer Broadstairs, or that the beaches are actually not as pleasant from now on that makes me anxious to reach my destination. Like Broadstairs, Margate has expanded to fill what was probably a nondescript void of open farmland. I read the other day that only 1% of Thanet is considered ‘wild’, and I suspect that’s an abandoned chalk quarry or some such. The whole Isle is now urbanised, and there’s more building to come if the government have anything to say about it.
I suppose in its heyday Palm Bay must have been known for its palms. If you look carefully you’ll spot a few date palms (Phoenix canariensis) planted in private gardens, and they seem to do respectably well on this windswept, north facing plateau. What grandeur and excitement this area might have offered during its heyday has long been grassed over, so there’s not a lot to see apart from a few restored Art Deco houses painted in jolly colours.
By this stage a strong westerly wind is roaring in my face and I am struggling to maintain a straight line as I walk. I cross numerous bridges constructed to navigate the deep chalk ravines cut by the farmers of yesteryear and arrive at what remains of Margate’s once magnificent lido. There is much talk of Thanet’s regeneration, but as yet it is restricted to a few favoured areas of Ramsgate and Margate. Both towns have yet to find investors willing to breathe life back into complex structures such as the Lido, although the rebirth of Dreamland has given us all hope for the future.
I make a short detour across the road to a small parade of shops which includes cult skincare and fragrance brand Haeckels and Simply Danish, a shop selling beautifully revitalised Scandinavian furniture and homewares. I leave with a very pleasing mahogany and brass lamp stand and a small blue vase, but I resist the temptation to indulge in pampering products, on this occasion at least.
The Old Town of Margate is one of the favoured areas I was referring to. It’s packed with genuinely interesting and original little shops selling everything from art to light fittings. Many of them change hands with a regularity which suggests the owners don’t find trading in the town plain sailing, but a few, such as Paraphernalia, have remained in business for a long time. My favourite haunts are the Pilgrims Hospice second hand bookshop in an old branch of the Midland Bank, and Hooked on Books in the High Street.
If one keeps going up the High Street one soon gets to experience the grittier side of Margate, although Ruskin endures with it’s beautifully curated range of mens and womenswear.
After a glimpse of the less salubrious side of Margate it’s hard to imagine that the town was once the place for the aristocracy to enjoy life by the seaside. Anyone who was anyone had a property in the town or in the smart enclave of Cliftonville. The Grand Old Duke of York and Albany, Price Frederick, who by all accounts was a bit of a ‘one’, maintained a huge property on the seafront, now converted into flats.
Feeling a little windswept and in need of sustenance I peered over the harbour wall by the Turner Contemporary and spied a huddle of little birds massed on a seaweed-strewn beach. The darker ones are turnstones, I am not sure about the others. The large bird, top right, is an omnipresent herring gull.
Artist Tracy Emin hails from Margate. One of her pieces reading ‘I Never Stopped Loving You’ adorns the front of Droit House at the entrance to the harbour arm.
With the wind driving the tide hard into the harbour it was time to seek shelter in the Old Kent Market, an old cinema building now hosting a variety of eateries and shops. After a delicious prawn sambal from The Malaccan, a kitchen selling Malaysian and Singaporean street food, I felt ready to return home. Just fifteen minutes later I was back in Broadstairs, my aching legs only just starting to protest at the three hour walk. TFG.
Have you done this walk yourself? If so, what fascinating tidbits of information can you add? Do you have a favourite Broadstairs beach? I’d love to know.
Categories: Photography, Walks, Weather
What a delight this was to read, Dan – opinionated to exactly the right degree and packed with information! Thank you
Thank you so much. I’m never quite certain if I got the balance right!
I only wish I had done this walk before. I found it all captivating. So much history and those interesting old buildings. I am with you on those Modern? houses without a soul. Who would want to live there??
Well, some folk must. I can only conclude the view must be better from inside out!
How lovely to do this walk with you, Dan, and ‘see’ a part of England I know very little about. I loved reading all the history of the place, and am just a teeny bit envious of you having such a walk so near to you. Goodness, your Botany Bay is so different from ours!
Yes, I imagine very different indeed. A bit cooler for starters!! So much smuggling and ship wrecking activity around here in days gone by. We mainly think of Cornwall (i.e Poldark / Jamaica Inn) when it comes to smuggling in England, but it was rife in Kent. Now it’s people trafficking we have an issue with.
Fabulous… knowing all of those places that you have introduced The Wardell family to just made it extra special to read
Jolly Good! We must definitely go to Botany Bay again next time. I forget how lovely it is …. and how much space!
This was such a lovely read. We have nothing of this sort near us so I’m enjoying the seaside and salty winds vicariously through you. Thank you for sharing!
Pleased you enjoyed it Cortney. I’m very fortunate to live by the sea. Walking the coast is a good way to remind myself of that. Dan
Wonderful to be transported to the places you walked, photographed, and described! History is certainly always in motion like the tides and the wind, thanks for sharing the highlights you captured!
I enjoyed writing this post. There was a whole lot more I could have squeezed in, but I had to stop somewhere!
Thank you for reminding me about Botany Bay. It was one of my favourite outings when I still lived in Kent and the sea was never very far away! Living in Ottawa, Ontario I’m now at least 600km from the sea……definitely not a day trip!!
No, that makes the seaside quite an excursion Rosalind. But perhaps it means you appreciate it more when you get there?
So beautiful Dan, exquisite walk and such a wonderful description. Thank you ever so much for taking all of us far and near to this gorgeous place.
You are welcome Barbara. The cliffs are a continuation of the White Cliffs of Dover, which everyone will be familiar with. The walk is on my doorstep and even I don’t do it often enough.
Fantastic blog. I whole heartedly agree with the new house comments. Lots of houses being built on and around Newcastle with very little gardens
What I object to is the bleak, unbroken carpet of block paving which just makes these houses look even more austere. And since when was it de rigeur to display your wealth in the form of a fleet of cars. Put them away! The view from inside must consist purely of concrete, metal, grey sea and occasionally blue sky!! If it was me I would hide the cars around the back and have some wonderful contemporary planting involving grasses, hummock-forming shrubs and huge agaves.
No I have never done this walk but feel I have now in your company! Great little travelblog! Thanks!
My pleasure. It was something a little different for me to do. I have a few posts in draft which are taking me an awfully long time to complete!
Thanks Dan I really enjoyed this piece – very well written and informative. I will definitely try to visit when the weather improves.
Yes. Time it for a fine day when the tide is going out and you’ll be able to complete the entire walk on the beach. Most of the walk is on sand, but there are a few flinty sections between the bays that call for sturdy boots.
What a great read and such welcome signs of spring (even if it was undoubtedly a whole lot breezier than it look in the photos). Absolutely with you on the brash monstrosities. I do wonder if that lovely Arts and Crafts house was once a little raw looking to outsiders when first finished but somehow I doubt it. And I cannot see the houses of horror you showed us ever mellowing into the landscape. Is it to do with scale perhaps? These ultra modern places being on such a super human scale that they never feel comfortable? Or their complete abnegation of the householders’ tacit duty to make the exteriors of their properties at least easy on the eye. At least bungalow hell avoids these.
(Did you the piece in praise of living in the Isle of Thanet in yesterday’s Sunday Times? Expect a bunfight in your bookshops)
Funnily enough Him Indoors (as was) messaged me to say the piece was in there, but I didn’t see it myself. Can I assume bookshops were flagged as one of the attractions? I think I’ve got enough now anyway, don’t you?
In my experience these modern houses to not weather well, and I suspect it will be pulled down and replaced with a new model long before it reaches the current age of the Arts and Crafts house. Let’s hope so!
I don’t often get time to sit down & read all your posts Dan, but am so glad I didn’t miss this one ! Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and although I have been a visitor to Viking Bay for many years, I really loved learning so much more about the area and its history. Thankyou 🙂
We visited Broadstairs a few years back in the depths of winter and to be honest did not really find the experience that enjoyable. Now, if only you had been on hand as a tourist guide things would have been so very different!
Well, the seaside can be an acquired taste on a cold, wet, windy day, I’ll grant you that. But if you know where to go and what to see it certainly helps! I’ve had some pretty grim experiences myself and it does not make one inclined to go back.
Great post, you’ve done Kent proud!
Why thank you Gareth. Very kind.
What an interesting blog! And I couldn’t agree more about the hideous houses built on the plots of older buildings. Completely and utterly charmless, and look more like offices than homes! I really dislike the entire American ‘tear down’ culture creeping in to the more affluent parts of the country.
It’s rife in Broadstairs Jackie. There are two schools:
1) Remodelling – usually of bungalows and semi-detached houses built in the 60’s. Some of these are actually quite successful and stylishly done. Gardens are generally paved over or covered in pebbles with a few palms and phormiums poking through.
2) New builds – Large plots with big Victorian and Edwardian houses are cleared and either divided up for box-like houses or used to build modest blocks of apartments that look the prow of a ship – everyone wants that sea view!
What disappoints me (I really mean appals me) is that people wish to display their wealth and taste by eradicating anything natural and parking ostentatious cars everywhere. Am I supposed to be impressed, or maybe the owners just don’t care what anyone else thinks? Oh for the days when a neat front garden and well scrubbed doorsteps told your neighbours everything they needed to know.
What a great lesson of geography and history combined with your pesonal point of view!. Thank you very much for the post Dan. It was really interesting to read ( and to watch – great photos by the way ). 🙂
Thank you Paul. Being lazy with my iPhone again I’m afraid. It was no day for a proper camera as there was sand flying absolutely everywhere. The wind was gusting at 50mph by the time I reached Margate!!
Well that was quite lovely. Such an assortment of natural and built. Thank you!
The Thanet coast is a bit too developed for my liking – I’d prefer a few stretches of genuine countryside – but we make do with parks, golf courses and some huge sweeps of grass. Glad you enjoyed the walk!
This is one of my favourite Coastal walks and one I/we do a few times a year, even ending or starting in Ramsgate. Great if you do it when the tide is out and can go through the arch at Kingsgate. Did you know in Margate Old Town square there is a pub (can’t remember the name) with a blue plaque which reads ‘Eric Morecambe held is wedding reception here’, it’s true too. Always enjoy your posts. Regards
I so enjoyed reading this on the train back from London. Thank you. Alison Curtis
Loved joining you on your walk and what fabulous photos. I’ve never been to Broadstairs or Margate but you have tempted me to pay a visit. And of course there is another literary association, Mr and Mrs Pooter in the marvellous Diary of a Nobody always holidayed in Broadstairs.
Broadstairs is a gem 💎 It could occasionally benefit from a little more polishing but that’s its charm. Not flawless yet plenty of substance. Margate is a diamond in the rough. Do come and visit. Our coastline is almost Grecian in summer.
Another great post with marvellous photos Dan. The chances of me ever getting there are zilch so it’s wonderful to read about the area and history. And well done coping with the wind and sand flying. I imagine you felt as if you’d had a thorough exfoliation by the time you got home!
We’ve been having 40C plus days in my part of Australia for over a month now (just keeping the garden alive is a major achievement) so lovely to see all those ocean views.
You must be gasping for fresh air Anne. I would melt. I am a typical Englishman who can’t cope if the temperature goes over 25ºC. I’d make a very poor Australian indeed!
Oh wow, that was fascinating! Now I want to come back to Broadstairs and do the walk myself. I’ve walked from Rye to Hastings a few times, about as far as I want to go in a day, but although beautiful I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting.
Although the Isle of Thanet might not appear very interesting, given it’s relatively flat and featureless, it has an incredibly rich history. I only scratched the surface on my walk. I am thinking I might walk the same route again in summer, including a completely different set of views and stories the second time. It will be a good challenge for me! Dan
Dan, this is such a wonderful post. Thank you for the history lesson, great photographs and beautiful imagery. I can feel the breeze, fine sand under my toes and taste the salty air. This blog is a marvelous read for me, an armchair traveller.
Looking forward, with great anticipation, to your Summer impressions of this walk.
I shall definitely do it in that case Lorna. Thank you for the lovely comment. Dan
What a great post. I visited this part of Kent for the first time in 2016 and was surprised by how much I liked it, especially Margate – didn’t really check out Broadstairs apart from a very brief visit and just saw the main beach (which as you say isn’t that inspiring) but certainly will explore a bit more next time. We did walk about half the route that you did from the Margate end but didn’t get to Broadstairs, the weather was against us so we turned back.
I got the impression with Margate that it may become horribly gentrified in about 5 or 10 years time, at the moment I felt it is kind of on a cusp where it has just enough grot and just enough glamour to be charming without being soulless or twee – English seasides do need a bit of grot, in my opinion.
Well, Margate has ample grot. We are on the very edge of things in Thanet, so affluence trickles down very slowly and retreats rapidly when times are tough. So I have my doubts that things will change that quickly. Plus I think the tattered fabric of Margate is such that it’s unlikely ever to be seamlessly beautiful.
Whilst it’s easy to be amused by the grot and the grittiness of seaside towns, the reality for thousands of residents is that it’s hard to find work, facilities are poor (Thanet is one of the top 5 places in the UK for inaccessibility of GPs for example) and standards of living are lower than average. Thanet has benefitted greatly from EU grants as it’s classed as being among the poorest regions of Europe. I have a more than comfortable home to go home to, but so many people do not, which makes me wary of eulogising too much about Margate.
All that said, I’m delighted you enjoyed the post and hope you’ll come back many times. Dan
This was a wonderful read and I loved all of the points of interest that you conveyed en route. Mr TT and I will have to visit the area again and explore further.
Are the little birds on the beach sanderlings? They are often the whitest waders and wintering flocks can be seen on sandy beaches.
The Beau thought so, yes. But then wondered about Dunlin or Knot. I am not the person to ask.
You are always welcome at The Watch House so don’t delay a return visit!
Well for some reason I missed this post, thank goodness I went looking for your Gingers post for another blogger and saw this. Quite different to your usual posts but none the worse for that. I loved reading about the history and seeing the beaches. I have had two or three trips to your part of Kent and brief visits to Broadstairs (good ice-cream) and Botany Bay – walked to Joss Bay from there. Never been to Margate though my parents once lost my then 4 yr old son on Margate beach. He did turn up 🙂
I like the town of Sandwich, had a lovely walk around there once. You have so many interesting places to visit all along the Kent coastline and some beautiful inland towns too. Not to mention gardens. We are even beginning to wonder whether we should have made our move to the east and not the west, although it does seem a lot more crowded now with the easier commute to London and more than likely more expensive.
And yes, I would say those lighter birds are Sanderlings, but I am no twitcher!!
https://cornwallincolours.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/a-winters-day-on-the-sea-shore/
Delighted with this walk – more please 😀
Your wish is my command! I have a few nice walks in mind, if The Beau fancies joining me.
Kent has a lot to offer and is often overlooked as a destination. Commuting takes a lot longer than it should, unless one is on the high speed line and wants to go to St Pancras. The journey from Victoria to Broadstairs took less long 100 years ago! And there is too much building, especially in Thanet, where the countryside that’s is left is steadily being erased. I think you made a good choice. Dan
Thoroughly enjoyed your walk. As a child living in Kent we visited Broadstairs, Margate and Cliftonville as my grandparents had a bungalow in Cliftonville. I remember Palm Bay covered with jelly fish, and the Viking ship at Viking Bay; is it still there? Sad to hear how the area has become run down. We loved the beaches, even if I regularly lost the family in the crowds and spent a lot of time in the Lost Children tent! Thankyou.
Hello Stella. Yes, the Viking ship is still there, in all its glory, surrounded by a sea of narcissi. All of the towns are definitely on the up and I quite like the mix of grit and gentrification. You should definitely pay a return visit.
Really took me back to my childhood when my grandparents had a chalet at Walpole bay. I took my mother back there to visit and sad to see that beach is hardly used now due to cliff danger. The chalets long gone.
Few years ago I had pleasure of Viking back when visiting my daughter at university in Broadstairs.
Beautiful little places and you have made me want to return. Thank you!