Margate is a town on England’s southeast coast. It's known for its sandy beach and sometimes for a coast that gets flooded by seaweed. There are also tidal pools along the coast that are very cool and safe to swim in. Near the Harbour Arm stone pier, one can find the modern Turner Contemporary art gallery, which has rotating exhibitions. The one on display when we were there was the work by artist Ingrid Pollard and it was amazing!
The other interesting bit that is part of Turner Contemporary was the work done by artist Antony Gormley titled "Another Time." The photos look like the beginnings of a horror story...not sure why! Totally worth the walk on the beach to take the shots, though.
Dreamland Margate is an amusement park with vintage rides which I tried to avoid at all costs! Definitely not my cup of tea! A must see was the Shell Grotto with its millions of seashells decorating is underground passages. Who made it? Why? When? All a mystery! We decided that at some point in its history there must have been a human sacrifice! [Total speculation on our part, by the way!]
In a former police station in the old town, the Margate Museum apparently has local history displays which I wished I had seen, but the museum was closed down due to lack of volunteers. There is also the Margate Caves which were NOT used by smugglers as I was led to believe and was corrected by the lovely volunteers that were on site. Turns out that it was first a chalk mine! The walls did make for some interesting abstract textures which I love!
This town was very busy on the weekend with lots of small restaurants that were super full of customers and understaffed. We felt bad for the people working in hospitality in this town, but the places were we went to eat were really nice and had for the most part good food.
One of our favourite activities was when we rented a couple of bikes at a local place called Ken's Bicycles and did the Viking Coastal trail all the way to check out Kingsgate. I really wanted to take this shot. What an iconic place! It took us about 40 minutes to ride there from Margate, but worth it.
All of this was great! But the thing that got me loving this town were the ridiculously beautiful sunsets. Check them out here.
I mean, come on! Even the fire rescue brigade stopped to check out the sunset. I really can´t blame them.
If you want to see my black & white street photos of Margate, you can see them all by clicking on the photo below.
By the way, if you are looking for a place to stay, my friend's Airbnb is fantastic. It is 2 min away from the beach and 10 min from the centre of Margate. [No, I don't get commissions or anything like that for recommending stuff!]. Check their Airbnb by clicking the image below.
