With the search for the country’s first town of culture under way, Guardian writers pick their favourite spots for art, architecture, food, festivals, music and celeb spotting
Why did Caesar, Saint Augustine, Hengist and Horsa make Ramsgate their first port of call on assorted crusading trips to England? Proximity to France? Easy landing beaches beneath the cliffs? The lively arts scene?
Probably – pending new archaeological finds – the first two, yet there’s little doubt that this bit of Thanet has long been hopping. Van Gogh, Turner, Pugin, Tissot and Sambourne wielded brushes on its streets. Dickens everyone already knows about, but other local scribblers include Anthony Buckeridge, Russell Hoban and Frank Muir. Sir Moses Montefiore transformed one area of town into a glorious slice of Georgian Jewish splendour; the brainchildren of other mad and sublime architects are dotted all about. The harbourside Home for Smack Boys, a charitable home for orphans and fishing apprentices, is the best church I know.
Granted, there was a bit of a cultural lull through the 80s, 90s and 00s, which is when I knew the town best. My family are from Flora Road, and I spent every holiday there, then even more time when my grandmother was ill. She died in 2005, the year after Ukip set up their first office-cum-gift shop on nearby King Street. But the advent of a high-speed rail link in 2008 turned things around and the subsequent gentrification has been colossal. There’s a proper, credible music venue now, plus an amazing record store, wild museums (obsolete computers, pinball machines), book sales in shipping containers and endless grassroots activity.
