Friday 7th September 2012 - Around the Kent coast

I wander around Ickham and discover it has an oast house, just to add to its rural perfection. It’s a glorious morning, the sun is shining and there is the promise of a sunny day. So a trip to the seaside seems ideal and I head off to Margate. I came to Margate in 2004, in the early days of my travels around Britain; I want to see what has (or hasn’t) changed. I miss the turning for the Turner Contemporary Gallery and find myself heading out of Margate, on a magical mystery through its suburbs and swirling 1970s estates of Cliftonville. There are great views out across the Thames estuary and out to sea. On the horizon are windmills – I assume this is the London Array. It looks pretty spectacular on this sunny morning. There are ships, large and small, going east and west. There is a beach and funfair – it looks like a picture from a child’s storybook. Closest to the sea are the 1930s villas – judging by the popularity of 1930s houses I’ve seen in the past few days; being beside the sea was fashionable. I visit the Tracey Emin exhibition – lots of embroidery and about to close soon. I sit in the sunshine and look out across the town; Margate has changed less than I expected. There is the lovely, shiny, new gallery but otherwise the town looks pretty much the same as it did in 2004. I’d expected the gallery to have helped regenerate the town, but perhaps it’s too soon – and recession has made a lot of towns look pretty tatty so maybe I’m being too tough on Margate. There is a Georgian centre to the town, it’s a bit battered but still lovely buildings, the western side of the town seems to be more 60s brutalist (and less appealing). As I leave Margate, I begin to realise why its shops have not been regenerated. There is a large edge of town shopping centre called Westwood Cross and that it where all the shopping happens. It’s certainly where most of the traffic was queuing. Where shopping centres are linked to the old high streets they don’t seem to cause problems. But when they’re separate from the high street, shopping centres seem to become vampirelike and suck the energy out of surrounding towns and high streets. I visit Sandwich where the old town walls have kept the modern world away. Pfizer was the big employer and sits, in its office fortress at the edge of the town but it’s announced that it’s closing its factory so who knows what the future holds for Sandwich? So many companies (old and new) either closing or shrinking – where are we all going to find work? I know there are lots of cheery forecasts about the ‘ideas economy’ but I’m not sure it’s going to provide regular jobs for everyone. I meander my way along the Kent coast – to St Margaret’s and more 1930s delights – then Dover when I manage to take a wrong turning and end up in the lorry escape lane. Up a the long steep hill that makes the white cliffs of Dover and off to Folkestone. I wanted to visit Folkestone’s creative quarter and see how it’s surviving the downturn. I haven’t visited it before and it’s very quaint and pretty and there are some interesting shops. But it seems to be struggling for survival like everywhere else. But even if not all the shops are filled, it makes a difference to find independent shops and cheering that someone is trying to do something other than the usual property development thing. I sit on the beach at Hythe and watch the waves, people fishing and strolling along the shore. Then it’s back to London via Ashford (restored by the Eurostar) and Maidstone (looking battered) and the A2 back into London with the sun in my eyes and the long slog of the south circular on a Friday evening.