Monday 27 July 2009

The Reading Rooms boutique bed and breakfast opening in Margate

The Reading Rooms is a luxury bed and breakfast, opening shortly in a restored Grade II Listed Georgian townhouse on Hawley Square.

12 comments:

  1. i am stupid, but i think they spent far too much prior to opening.
    hope it helps margate, we need it dragging up market.

    PS. bin the Turner Centre! - wot a waste of money

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  2. The Turner Centre will not be a waste of money. It will bring masses of people to the town. Look at St Ives in Cornwall. The locals didn't want The Tate gallery there, moaned and groaned about the waste of money, but it turned a winter-dead town into a busy, all year round flourishing place-B&Bs full. You wait and see, those boarded up places will be snapped up, galleries, cafes and new businesses will want to take advantage of it all and houses will be snapped up. Margate is so close to London!

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  3. Anon, your last line unfortunately is why it is so unlikely to be a big success: "Margate is so close to London!". Why would people from London want to travel to Margate to see an art gallery when they have bigger & better galleries there?

    I'm not totally against The Tina Turner Centre, but people are relying too much on this when Margate needs old-style entertainment too.

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  4. Hello. Well, there isn't a Turner Centre in London and people love to combine a bit of culture with the seaside and Margate has fabulous beaches. When I was growing up there the town was packed with holiday people and the boarding houses were flourishing. Give them something else to come for, such as a big gallery and encourage the artists, the place will take on a different character. Everything could be buzzing again and holiday cruise ships may even drop off parties for the day, as they do in St Ives.With the faster trains houses will be snapped up too. I'm very hopeful anyway.

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  5. i did not make myself clear re Turner Centre.

    it is fine to build it, but i deeply object to a brutally modernist design being dumped on margate sea-front next to a beautiful dock building. It will destroy that part of the skyline for what?
    And adjacent to the building are some tatty traditional buildings that COULD have been demolished, and the frontage preserved to create a stunning art centre without interfering at all with the aspect - spot the slimey architect?

    at the other end of front is an ugly 60s block that needs al qaida applying to it, or the ground area made into the gallery, and they could all be ugly together..

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  6. How on earth are cruise ships going to dock at Margate with no pier? The silted up harbour couldn't cope with a small yacht!

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  7. The cruise ships don't dock in St Ives. They moor out in the bay and ferry boatloads of people ashore.

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  8. Peter is right about entertainment.
    it is a great shame Benbows were allowed to run down the funfair in order to pursue their 'evil' redevelopment agenda.

    the site should be permanently frozen for use solely as an amusement fair,
    and they should then be forced to sell it to a chiritable trust to set up the fair using heritage rides from around the country - get a big wheel back etc...., and it would give jessica and henry something to do while Charles and Andrea visit the Turner Centre...

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  9. Looks like the people from the Guardian have a positive view: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/dec/12/reading-rooms-margate-kent-bandb-review

    A high end contemporary art Gallery could only add to the experience and David Chipperfield is probably the best architect to deliver the building on time, on budget and with a world class contemporary design (Stirling prize winner 2008). I'm not saying that one gallery will solve all the problems, but the 4 new shops that have opened this autumn in the old town and the Reading Rooms is a sign that things are changing.

    As for the "old style"entertainment, there is a theatre opposite and a heritage amusement park on the way.

    If I were to make a request, it would be to invest in the natural resources of our coast - clean out the tidal pools, make better walkways between Margate harbour, by cliftonville to Botany Bay.
    A revival of the historic Lido would be nice.

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  10. i live opposite the Lido and it is crying out for renewal to its original purpose, you would then have an excellent frontage from dreamland to lido -knock spots off southend!

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  11. Absolutely, Malc! If as well as Dreamland and Turner they renovated the tidal pools, the lido and made a nice sea walk up from Margate to Botany Bay at least then we'd have an amazing resort for people to come and visit. Outdoors, water activities and enjoying the coast are really important factors to people visiting and looking to relocate here. Which are supposed to be the objectives.

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  12. thanks
    فاتورة التليفون المصرية معرفة فاتورة التليفون المصرية الان بكل سهولة وفى اسرع وقت فواتير التليفون المصرية فاتورة التليفون المصرية
    فاتورة التليفون

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