Margate Storm - 30 years on
London, UK On January 11th, 1978 storms reeked havoc along the Kent Coast and Margate bore the brunt with it's famous jetty smashed to smithereens. The photos are from a special booklet produced at the time by the now defunct East Kent Times. (A few years earlier our family's beach hut was washed away from Foreness Bay)
The famous sun-decks at Walpole Bay and Palm Bay were swept into history by the storm which was the worst since the famous 1953 flood.
This event was one of many nails in the Margate coffin. The fortunes of this once proud seaside resort has continued to decline with few facilities for holiday-makers and day-trippers alike.
3 comments:
Nice post Jeremy, I think that little booklet should be compulsory reading for the architects of The Turner Centre in Margate and the Pleasurama Development in Ramsgate, some more Thanet storm pictures here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tdc/latest_news.htm and some video here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tides/
In a perverse sort of way the storm of 1978 did us a favour. The Jetty was closed as unsafe, the sundecks at Cliftonville were semi derelict and the sun deck on the main sands was heading the same way. After the demolishion of the 1926 sun deck on the mains sands. The veiw of the main sands improved and the beach seem to expand and improve. All these structures were on the way out and they went out in a spectacular style. A fitting tribute from mother nature,
I guess so Tony. Still a pity though.
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