Broadstairs Folk Week Photos, perhaps a Video this evening and the business with The Captain Digby, The Foreland and The Northern Belle.

I went to Broadstairs this evening for my constitutional after work, camera wise I am afraid there was a fair amount of multiple shots from the waist without looking at the viewfinder.

Anyway here is the link to what’s on the camera card http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/817L/id5.htm

Next the history which is an excerpt from one of the railway guides All About Ramsgate and Broadstairs 1864 if you want to risk the link, sample pages, buy it now button, here it is http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/all_about_ramsgate_and_broadstairs_1864.htm

If I have pressed the right buttons then it should be next.

   

Ramsgate and the Napoleonic Wars + out and about pictures in Ramsgate today.

I know this picture of Ramsgate was drawn during the Napoleonic Wars as it is the one in the 1809 guide to Thanet, for those of you who know about my stealth advertising plan and still want to go further up this particular tree, here is the link that leads to the inevitable buy it now button.

Next some of  the Ramsgate pages from the guide.

Now at this time – oh sorry the wars – Waterloo, Trafalgar type of kidney spanned the period from 1800 to 1815, Ramsgate was supposed to be a military embarkation town. I am pretty sure I read somewhere that the area where Wellington Crescent was eventually built in from around 1820 and up on the westcliff where about 60 years later Vincent Van Gogh would eventually sketch the Churchill Tavern; was covered with tents.

I am also pretty sure that the Ramsgate Clifftop buildings that date for this period were built to rent out to officers, “can’t go anywhere without my, horses, servants, don’t you know”

Reading the guide I can only assume that this military centred, marry off your daughters social whirl was what they meant by the season.

However no mention of the war in the guide.    

This is the link to the out and about pictures of Ramsgate this evening 

and this the link to the books that went out in the bookshop today

 

The Ravensgate Arms Due to Reopen at the End of the Month like The Pav, + a few out and about photos, mainly a Thames Barge in Ramsgate Harbour

The barge is worth a look at, note the pole at 11 O'clock holding the one the sail hangs on at 10 O'clock. this enables the whole rigging - masts and sails - to be dropped very quickly and put up again when going under the bridges on the Thames  

the thing that seems to have a narrow gauge scenic railway on it is to do with the electricity cable between the UK and Europe, it is the cable that travels along the big dipper on its journey to the sea bed and not little people. 

And yes the pub.

here is the link to the rest of the photos from this evening's walk 

here is the link to the books we put out in the bookshop today

JWM Turner, Canterbury and the ghastly gothic revival and some Margate panoramic views from around 1870

I suppose that the peak of the gothic revival, perhaps inspired by the earlier and more tasteful, is that the tight word? Dame Edna? Was around 1870.

I’m feeling a bit on the lazy side tonight so the three panoramas of Margate that I bought in Canterbury today, I’m dating on the hazard guess front as around 1870.

I suppose if you are being picky one is Westgate.

As I have mentioned before here, there are very few paintings of the inside of Canterbury Cathedral, Turner did do a watercolour of the crypt and one looking out of the gate   

here it is. 

At some time around 1870 someone knocked down the the buildings built in - medieval times, middle ages, dark ages - don't tell anyone, all three are the different ways of saying the same thing.

Where was I? Yes the castellated thing with Georgian and Gothic overtones, in ghastly good taste.

 here is the view today

are they knocking it down or will they replace it with mock dark ages?

 Back when I were a lad, you could sit outside McDonald's - well you could have done if it was there - and paint the cathedral, nowadays there are all these mock dark ages buildings, in the way

Don't despair you can paint it from upstairs in Chocolate Cafe, but the reflections in the windows of the building in front of it are problematic, which is where I am a bit stuck at the moment.

Oh nearly forgot the books that went out in my bookshop
  

Looking back into Victorian Ramsgate with artistic licence.

 Looking at old prints of Ramsgate especially those with a date on interests me, this one says 1854 and obviously wasn't done from a photo, I also doubt it was done by copying a sketch drawn from a boat. My guess would be the artist went up the harbour wall, did some sketches, probably went up the other harbour wall and did some more, after which he or she went back to their digs and drew the picture after which they posted it off to the engraver.

 Like this one from 1851, I doubt the boat or the people would have stood still for long enough to sketch them.

 Just looking at the clothes and the date helps dating other ones.

 As you see in this one The Regency is half built

 This one has a strange cliff on the right of the inner harbour wall, I think this must have been completely made up by the artist, I think what the artist most conveys is. "I supped well at The Royal Albion Hotel" which at that time was where pizza express is now.

 This one shows the older lighthouse, allegedly washed away in a storm, note the wooden structure to help keep vessels entering the harbour away from it. Apparently one of its features was knocking the yardarms off of unwary ships entering the harbour. The later lighthouse is further back, although the echo of the old one remains, you only have to stand on the spot and talk to hear it.

I suppose this can be seen as a featured book post, so for the enthusiastic here is the link to the buy it now button http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/id76.htm

Just discovered Thanet From My Perspective where there are eighty odd pictures of today’s Pride event and two hundred and something of Margate Carnival, here is the link https://www.facebook.com/thanetfrommyperspective/  

Mike Samson York Street Gallery in Ramsgate

The current exhibition is by Mike Samson Exhibition - 3 Aug - 23 Aug