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SPOTLIGHT ON OUR EAST KENT COAST 017 Harbour Arm Folkestone & Margate past & present Our ever-popular seaside towns Margate and
Folkestone have something in common: a Harbour Arm that has discovered a new purpose in recent years
Margate then
Margate’s Harbour Arm has developed over hundreds of years; necessary for the town’s trade, it could also be said to have reflected its fortunes. There was a harbour back in the time of the Plantagenet’s, though the shape of the present ‘arm’ is similar to that created in Tudor times, when it became a stronger structure with a lighthouse on the end. Ian Dickie, Museums’ Coordinator for the Margate Museums Trust, describes it as a very important historical staging point. Kings and queens have travelled through the harbour, and Cornish tin miners reportedly moved their ore along the coast to be taken to North Germany and Holland. Steam boats came to the head of
the harbour, but could only land and let passengers off at high tide. One solution was to build a long wooden jetty (from where Turner Contemporary is now), to allow ships to dock at low tide. In 1857 Eugenius Birch made plans for an iron jetty, the first of its kind in the country and the first of many piers to be built. At its peak, tourists were brought from London, 500 at a time. Margate’s harbour played its part during the evacuation of Dunkirk: although all ships left from Ramsgate, the harbour allowed 50,000 men to be brought back safely to Margate. Hard to believe now, but it was also heavily used for fishing; imagine the harbour in the years before 1959, jam-packed with the boats of a huge herring fleet.
Margate now
With only a few boats and yachts, and one fishing boat, the harbour arm could easily have lost its purpose. Instead, helped by the arrival of Turner Contemporary in 2011 and a resurgence of delight in Margate’s seaside and arts scene, it has transformed into a place of leisure and entertainment. Whether packed with drinkers and diners on a hot bank holiday, or quietly cool on a misty morning, the Harbour Arm is the place to be – lined by eateries and bars, each with their own atmosphere.
Folkestone then
Folkestone Harbour’s origins are in the fishing industry, but it was developed further in the 19th and 20th centuries to become a ferry port, with Thomas Telford part of a team that designed and built a western pier – completed in 1810 and followed by another running at right angles, their dry stone walls providing shelter from prevailing winds. Folkestone played an important role in the First World War, with reportedly 8.6 million passengers, including troops and 120,000 refugees from Europe, passing through between 1914 and 1918.
Folkestone today
After its £3.5 million renovation harbour workers and passengers of the past would find the Harbour Arm unrecognisable.
This improvement is a step toward the rejuvenation of a wider area, according to a plan conceived by architect Sir Terry Farrell. New independent cafes, bars and restaurants have set up in attractive premises, drawing people together to socialise or simply to soak up the atmosphere next to the sea. Today visitors can walk along the harbour arm every day from 8am to 7pm, with a traffic light system warning about the reality of dangerous weather conditions. At weekends and holidays, live music, pop-up stalls and other events take place – and at the far reaches of the arm, attracting folk like a magnet, is the Lighthouse Champagne Bar, run by the Robinson family. Immediately recognising the site’s potential, they put a proposal to English Heritage, which they were delighted to have accepted. Soon the bar was themed in ‘shipwreck chic’, with carefully selected antiques adding to the atmosphere.
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