Friday, July 20, 2007

Hidden Treasures

Have you ever wondered what it's like inside the Cliftonville Lido these days, or that rundown restaurant on Ramsgate's seafront car parkarama? This website will reveal all!

Update: Along with a salutary lesson in the parlous state our local council has allowed the West Cliff Hall to fall into.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant find. I especially enjoyed the Marina Restaurant photos.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Yes - it's a shame the owner says he's going to convert it into yet more luxury apartments. If we had a local Rick Stein it would make a terrific fish restaurant.

Anonymous said...

The other buildings on the website were of interest too

Snailspace said...

Good greif.
A trip down memory drain
Thats where I learnt to swim in me yoof. I can remember those locker rooms when they were in good nick.
Damn good site that

ZumiWeb said...

Excellent - I've borrowed the link to add to my new postcard photo of West Cliff (with an acknowledgement of course). Broken Britain is one of those sites that justifies the Web - community-generated site, access to stuff you'd never see otherwise, and free, fascinating and slightly naughty...

Anonymous said...

If only we had a local millionare who wanted to do something worthwhile with his money.....

Richard Eastcliff said...

Well Tony I've already put forward two ideas for West Cliff Hall - a Van Gogh Contemporary and the Windy City Visitor Experience. What's yours? A jet engine test centre presumably!

Anonymous said...

There used to be a tradition of self made types putting something back into the local community. How about the Godden/Icke/Thorley/Wills/That Bloke Who Makes Toys In China And Drives A Bentley Continental Flying Toss West Cliff Hall?

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for the kind comments about our site, apart from the fun of exploring these old places it's primary role is to show people these fantastic buildings before they are lost or converted.

I'm glad so many of your readers have actually viewed the site with that in mind and gained an insight into the places we visit.

Slightly naughty I guess but as we don't break in and don't cause any damage, the benefits to our heritage outway the naughty bits ;)

Unfortunately I think the West Cliff Halls has been sold to some kind of church :(

S

Anonymous said...

Nice one ECR. Actually I agree with what STEALTH says on his site, it would make a brilliant night club venue.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Yes, it would make a great night club too!

Thanks for the thanks Stealth, and thanks to you guys for bringing these places to light before they crumble away completely or, more likely, become luxury apartments.

If you follow the West Cliff Hall tag on this post you'll see that the council has got its knickers in a twist over the site, with the leader 'handing over the keys' (i.e. the lease) to the Global Generation Church as part of some cheesy photo op before the local council elections, but the council's chief executive has subsequently denied in quite forceful terms that the church will be getting hold of it.

So we wait and watch it crumble.

Meanwhile the Lido has been sold to Paigle, the people who turned Margate's Sea Bathing Hospital into, you've guessed it, luxury apartments. Although I will say they made a beautiful job of it, from the outside at least.

Anonymous said...

Aha, thanks for the updated info on the fate of the West Cliff Hall ECR, hopefully they'll actually pull thier fingers out and do something decent with it before the local chavs burn it to the ground or it crumbles.

(Mr. Council, what's wrong with a mini Wintergardens? How about letting someone devolve the place into what it used to be... Erm a Venue... Doesnt take alot of imagination really does it?)

We at Broken-Britain will keep you and your readers informed with lots of new explores ;) hopefully showing the public what a disgraceful state our urban environment is being left in and what these developing criminals are doing to our historic buildings/sites.

S

Anonymous said...

Not sure we need another Rick Stein, Padstow is now known as Ricksville as he now owns so many shops there.

Anonymous said...

Aren't we already Thorleyville?