When I attend hotel industry conferences in the United Kingdom, there is only ever one regional tourism, events and business bureau in attendance — Visit Kent.
This always fills me with a little unnecessary pride as this is my county where I was born.
It borders London. Traditionally, the territory of Kent went all the way up to the River Thames in Central London, but the creation of Greater London and the expansion of the city essentially means, southeast of the capital, Kent begins at Dartford, where I was born and which is most famous for also being the birthplace of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.
To get to Kent, one must be deliberate to travel there as the next geographic destination is the English Channel and France.
Kent used to be the premium seaside destination in the United Kingdom.
Millions a year took the train from London to Margate, which sits on the tip of Kent where the North Sea joins the River Thames.
Its fortunes dropped in the 1970s onwards as people discovered Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and other warmer spots on the Mediterranean.
I know this place of 40,000 people well and visited for a couple of days last week.
It has three parts, at least in my mind. The Old Town, which is wonderful and interesting; the area behind amusement park Dreamland, which I find drab; and Foreness Point, which is its wild edge, with bathing pools, white cliffs, rare and migrating birds and what might be one of my favorite names for a geographical occurrence, Long Nose Spit.
Dreamland, I believe, “borrowed” its name from a park in Coney Island, Brooklyn — another place I have lived.
Walking along a stretch of a Margate footpath, the Thames Coastal Path, I watched three Alpine swifts flying over the North Foreland Golf Club.
These three birds were part of an unprecedented irruption of up to 100 of this species around the British Isles that lasted for 10 days or so and now, as I write, is largely over.
I often go birding along this coast and along the edge of Margate, but I do not often enter the town itself.
Art's Part
On the coast is the Turner Contemporary Museum, which has helped put Margate back on the map or, perhaps more tellingly, reminded Londoners of its existence.
Margate is the home of one of the U.K.’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner, and it is also home of Tracey Emin, who came to prominence in the late 1990s with the Young British Artists movement, which also produced Damien Hirst, Fiona Rae and Angus Fairhurst.
When I visited the museum, there was a work called “Feeling Her Way” by Sonia Boyce, which was the official British entry in 2022 at the celebrated Venice Biennale.
I went to Venice to see this. Francesca, my wife, was born in that city, so this work has followed me in a sense.
It must be deemed an honor that its first showing after it won the Biennale’s highest prize, the “Leone d'Oro” or “Golden Lion” is in Margate, where it runs to May 8.
The museum sits above the walls of the small harbor, an exclamation point that cannot be missed.
Such artists have encouraged musicians, writers, students, restaurateurs and others to come here, to escape the high rents of London and to have space to create.
Hotels have come in their wake.
Probably the most famous is the seven-room, boutique Albion Rooms, owned by members of the rock band The Libertines, whose personal challenges and addictions have been well-documented.
It still has an edge, and it also has a music studio. Afternoon tea is served, too.
Do not miss Italian restaurant Bottega Caruso.
When I had lunch there with Francesca, a dozen people were kindly told there were no reservations available for at least a month.
I sincerely think that would not have been the case for any restaurant in the town 10 years ago.
Go to Margate. I think you will enjoy it.
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