History of Ramsgate
The first recorded evidence of this fad in Ramsgate was in 1764, when James Hawkesley was “rated” for two sheds where female clients could undress and wait for a bathing machine to become vacant.
Following the calamitous storm of 1748, a petition was sent to Parliament to build a safe haven at Ramsgate for vessels navigating the Thanet coast and the Goodwin Sands.
After a number of false starts, Smeaton's new designs for a harbour with piers, sluices and an inner basin were adopted and the bulk of the work was completed by 1790.
The naval harbour and garrisons on both cliffs changed the town from a small fashionable watering hole to a place of some military and social consequence in Regency society.
The heir to the Duke of Hamilton occupied Mount Albion House, followed by Lady Augusta Murray, sometime wife to Frederick Augustus, the 6th son of George III.
And the Duke of Clarence (William IV) held a ball at Bear's Albion Hotel in 1811, which according to the Times: “in fashion, splendour and elegance exceed anything of the kind ever witnessed in that part of the Kingdom”.
And during the same period, Jane Austen’s brother, Francis, organised a corps of “Sea Fencibles” (a sort of naval militia/Dad's Army) from the town to protect the South Coast of Britain from invasion.
The largest troop movement occurred in 1809, when the disastrous Walcheren Expedition attempted to secure the Dutch island and the port of Flushing.
One small boy recalls watching infantry march 6-abreast through the town in lines reaching back from the pier gates to Nethercourt Toll Bar.
While Kenneth Beacham Martin (later deputy Harbour Master) remembers the Household Cavalry and Royal Dragoons descending from their barracks on West Cliff to embark on 34 vessels heading for Ostend in the spring of 1815 to join Wellington and to eventually fight in the battle of Waterloo.
But the new King was so gratified by the hospitality and congratulations he received from the town that on his return the monarch made Ramsgate a “Royal Harbour” – a designation that is still unique in mainland Britain.
[6] But after the Congress of Vienna, Ramsgate's military importance declined sharply as the threat from France ended and Britain's focus of attention switched from Europe to the colonies.
Instead of spending a day in a bumpy coach to Brighton, wealthy seaside visitors could now cruise down the Thames to Thanet in just four hours of comfort and luxury.
By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Ramsgate was covered with elegant crescents, squares, places and lawns, all with fine bow-fronted Regency houses, embellished by delicate gossamer ironwork and Pagoda-style canopied balconies.
A house on Nelson or Wellington crescent could command a rent of £16 a month – five or six times more than a gentleman would expect to pay for an equivalent family residence in London.
So even as Queen, Victoria always loved the town and cherished fond memories of the seaside, where she was occasionally allowed to play in the sands with her dog or briefly mix with other children.
Instead of taking the waters, new fashions emerged among the rich and wealthy – like the country weekend, or a day at the races or a week at the tables.
41, during a routine descent of the precipitous, and adverse camber leading down Madeira Walk hill into Ramsgate harbour, suddenly careered out of control, jumping the tracks, causing it to crash straight through the railings, so that it then dropped over the 30-foot (9.1 m) cliff edge adjacent.
The Electric Tramways & Lighting Co. Ltd. continued to operate with no further significant incidents recorded until its services were replaced with the buses of the East Kent Road Car Co, which began on 27 March 1937.
Perhaps as a result, Westgate was refused its application to become a separate urban district because it lacked "civic character" before World War I (it became part of Margate).
During World War II the Ramsgate lifeboat and crew were called out 60 times, greatly distinguishing themselves with the saving of 170 lives, in addition to the men brought back from Dunkirk: (Jeff Morris).
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II the local council, thanks in large part to the town Mayor Alderman Kempe,[13] decided to enlarge the existing tunnels under the town as a public air-raid shelter - and after the war started the national government finally gave permission to spend the money - it was built and used a lot during the raids.
In one of his letters[14] to his brother Theo, he described his surroundings, “There’s a harbour full of all kinds of ships, closed in by stone jetties running into the sea on which one can walk.
And further out one sees the sea in its natural state, and that’s beautiful.” Many artists have been inspired by the light of Thanet, including J. M. W. Turner, who lived in nearby Margate.
