Margate (Isle of Thanet) Tourist Attractions
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Together with Cliftonville, Margate (pop. 49,100) is one of the most popular resorts on the Isle of Thanet - today more of a peninsula than an isle. Attracting mainly Londoners, it has miles of fine sandy beaches, good entertainment facilities, including the a theater, a concert hall and Dreamland amusement park. Architectural highlights include splendid 19th century crescents, a number of very fine houses such as the Tudor House (16th century) in King Street and the Limes and India House (18th century) in Hawley Street, and the painstakingly restored buildings of Salmestone Grange in Nash Road.Margate has an annual jazz festival in July and a museum that highlights the seaside heritage of Margate.
Charles Dickens Museum
From Margate a lovely path runs along the cliffs to Broadstairs (5mi/8km), where Charles Dickens wrote some of his work, including "David Copperfield" (1850), in the real Bleak House. The house is now a museum dedicated to the great man of letters, whose memory is further celebrated during the week-long Dickens Festival held every year in June. Throughout the seven days, old and young alike dress in Victorian costume and there are Victorian-style parties and balls.
Westgate-on-Sea (Birchington)
Westgate-on-Sea and Birchington are two smaller resorts retaining something of their old-fashioned charm. The Powell-Cotton Museum in Birchington has well-presented natural history and ethnographic collections. Here the sandy beaches are separated by stretches of chalk cliff.
Birchington - Quex House and Museum
Quex House contains the collections of the Victorian explorer and anthropologist Powell-Cotton. Powell-Cotton spent much of his life travelling to Africa and Asia, learning about the people and their customs. At the house you will find an elaborate collection of treasures from his voyages which include: African animal dioramas by Rowland Ward, ethnography, weapons, European and Imperial Chinese ceramics.
St John the Baptist
The church of St John the Baptist in Margate's High Street contains an interesting collection of brasses, some of which are highly unusual; note in particular the brass skeleton commemorating Richard Notfelde (died 1446).
Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
There is an interesting walk to Reculver, site of Regulbium, a Roman fort of the third century. It once protected the wide and important (because navigable) Wantsum channel which, joining up with the River Stour, separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland.Nearby there are also twin towers dating back to the 12th C.
