Museum Piece

News flashes over my Yahoo! chat that our splendid Maritime Museum is to re-open this weekend. Caff-crushing, car-crushing Councillor Green, the new Mayor of Ramsgate, writes:

I don’t want to be prematurely optimistic, but it looks as though Thanet Council have finally realised what an enormous and unnecessary 'own goal' the closure of the Ramsgate Maritime Museum has been.

Since the closure, Ramsgate and Broadstairs residents have, through the petition organised by Ramsgate Councillors, and through letters and phone calls, let the Council know what they think of the decision. The Council have been fortunate that the Preston Steam Trust have been able to pick up where the EKMT have failed, and promise a future for the museum. This seems to have triggered the 'save our museums' campaign in the Gazette Newspaper.

Hurrah! It's most excellent news that the museum will now be open for the summer season, which kicks off here in the Millionaires' Playground with Ramsgate Rocks this weekend. In fact I'm off to polish up my beer goggles right now!

Update: Museum re-opening confirmed. Doors open from Saturday 4 July. See comments on this item for details.

Full story on Cllr Green's blog

Island Hopping

With spring in the air, I find it always gets the old Eastcliff sap rising when the ladies start casting a clout and sporting those skimpy little numbers that show a bit of belly button. However, here on Chavvy Island the first cuckoo does not automatically bode well, as my photograph rather too amply demonstrates.

I see the Gazunder has started a campaign today to 'Save the Past for the Future', by which they mean getting Margate and Ramsgate Museums reopened. Jolly good luck to them, I say. Our Sandy is quoted as saying he 'loves the museums'. So much so that he's loved them to death if you ask me.

But on the bright side the paper also reports that Northdown House has been saved for the Thanetian nation, after much to do about the plan to flog it off to the council's developer chums. Apparently the legal restrictions in the property's covenants make it impractical. Which was what everyone told the Cecil Square duffers in the first place. Still, if our council tax has furnished some poor, impoverished lawyers with a couple more Bentleys who am I to complain?

Anyhoo, I'm packing my YSL suiter as we speak in preparation for a weekend on an exotic south sea island. Er, the Isle of Wight as it happens. But I'll be sure to send you a postcard. Pip pip!

Côte De Rubble

The observant among you will have clocked the new ticker in my sidebar on the right, counting up the number of days since Isle of Man based Auclair Properties gave the listed Marina Restaurant on Ramsgate front a right old, er, developing. It's now been 380 days, 21 hours, 28 minutes and 32, no, 33, no 34... oh you get the picture, since we were promised it would be restored to its former glory. Personally I think it should stay as it is, since it makes a fine addition to the tourist attractions down there, viz:

- Lido turned into car park with EU money
- Decade long eyesore that was Pleasurama
- Deserted casino
- Festering Motor Museum
- Smoothie hut

Auclair have submitted plans for rebuilding the joint, albeit with what Prince Jug Ears would describe as a 'monstrous carbuncle' of a modern annex on the side, but this was rejected by the planning department. There's been a meeting this evening about the Marina Restaurant, and TDC's proposed sale of the Maritime Museum and Albion House, so we should hear more on the morrow.

Meanwhile it's not all destruction and desolation here in the Cannes of Kent. Regular contributor Millicent has sent me this photo of a new, Unidentified Frame-like Object that's appeared on the Rec. Apparently it's going to be an indoor basketball court when they get around to finishing it!

When The Boot Goes In

In my capacity as Chief Churner Out of Crap at the Ministry of Misinformation, I'm duty bound to report the latest rumour regarding the East Kent Maritime Trust, the charity that used to run our lovely museums (RIP).

If you recall, our beloved council stopped all their divvies and scuppered them after they failed to produce accounts for three years, and the question of what to do with all the artifacts, and who technically owns them, has been doing the rounds for several months, including a threat from the Preston Steam Museum to sue for the dreadful neglect to the steam tug Cervix, er, Cervia which the steam museum had placed in EKMT's 'care'. Now reader Walter of Ramsgate reports:

The rumour is EKMT has now given up and handed over all their assets to the Preston Steam Museum lot including the Sundowner (one of the Dunkirk little ships moored in the inner basin). If this is true we should be told. I have been reliably informed that a TDC solicitor was present when the dirty deed was done in London this week.

If the Preston lot take over they have not got Charity status, but I bet negotiations are taking place with TDC and the Charity Commission to apply for it. I hear that a sum of £80k goes with the settlement to the Preston three. Let's hope whatever happens that the Museum stays and the Cervia is removed, so the lock gate can be put back on Smeatons dry dock and it can be used again for what it was built for, 'repairing and building ships'.

My feelings are that the EKMT trustees knew from the start what way this was going and that they were personally liable, so did TDC.

Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser. We await the full SP with bated breath. In the meantime, here's an example of how not to preserve a piece of maritime heritage:

Museums Are History

Yikes! I see from caff-crushing car-crushing councillor Dave Green's blog that our lovely Maritime Museum is finally to close, along with Margate Museum. The move follows almost a year of wrangling after the withdrawal of £100,000 in grants from Thanet Council, and the failure of East Kent Maritime Trust, which runs the museums, to deliver any accounts for the past three years.

Apparently the Ramsgate museum will be vacated imminently. Rumour is it may become a fish restaurant. However, EKMT have another seven years of their lease to run over in Margate. What will happen to the exhibits and Thanet archives is currently uncertain, but one reader writes:

I suspect that a fire sale of TDC owned paintings etc or possibly an auction will shortly be forthcoming. No doubt an officer of TDC will be given this erroneous duty and he/she will no doubt be the nation's expert on this matter. As for me, this is my field of expertise and I have informed TDC/EKMT I want all my possessions on loan/gifted, back...Tout de suite.

Click here to read more on Councillor Green's blog

Update: I've now managed to get hold of the full statement from EKMT, which includes a quote from Deputy Rodge, the council's 'Culture and Economy' member. Click on the image to enlarge.

Something Fishy Down At The Museum?

Smoking kippers! I see today's Isle of Thanet Gazunder is reporting rumours that Ramsgate's Maritime Museum may become a fish market and fish restaurant. I wonder if my old culinary chum Rick Stein has seen the Cannes of Kent's potential at last? It would be a shame, though, if all the shenanigans that have gone on between our council and the East Kent Maritime Trust, who run the museum, were to deprive us of a spot of heritage. After all, the whiff of rotting buildings that the council have neglected already pervades Ramsgate. Why not let the fishy folk have a go at tarting them up first?

Meanwhile as you can see from my fabby new sidebar feed, Thanet Coast Life is running the story of the Cervia, the old steam tug next to the museum, which was in fact tarted up with public funds not so long ago but has since been allowed to fall into a most parlous condition. I first reported on the state of this once proud piece of maritime machinery back in October last year. Now you apparently can't even board her without doing a risk assessment first. Shameful.

Click here to read museum story in the Isle of Thanet Gazunder
Click here to read October's post on the Cervia
Click here to read the amazing history of the Cervia

Historical Reaction

I see the petition to stop the closure of our splendid Maritime Museum has reached almost 1000 signatures.

The campaign has been spearheaded by the Ramsgate Labour Party, including local councillors and our MP, Dr Steve Ladychap. You can see more on that over on caff-crushing, car-crushing councillor Dave Green's blog.

Meanwhile there's a vicious rumour spreading around the north of the Ile that Margate Museum, which is also threatened with closure, has already been earmarked as a future 'function room'. Well call me old-fashioned, but I thought it already had a pretty useful function - as a flipping museum!

Light Fantastic

Regular contributor Samantha writes:

Reading your story about the closure of the Ramsgate Maritime Museum got me thinking. Being a bit of an 'oldie' I remember the days when the whole of Ramsgate front was illuminated, including the 'clock house' as it was then known. So I rummaged through my old cine film and came up with this. Those were the days!

Museum Destined To Be History

Those blighters at the council look set to close our Royal Harbour's splendid Maritime Museum! The news is tucked away in the corner of this week's Gazunder feature on the council's 2008 budget. The Blue Rinsers are apparently considering withdrawing the museum's grant as part of urgent cost-cutting measures.

But the news is not all bad, as they'll be diverting more resources into keeping the town centre spick and span - by closing the public khazis. Presumably the idea is that the resulting rivers of piss running down the high street will sluice the litter into the harbour. And with no museum to attract visitors, a wee smell or two in the harbour won't go amiss! Genius!

Tug Toff

I felt about as spruce as this old rustbucket outside the Maritime Museum as I walked around our Royal Harbour yesterday afternoon, in a vain attempt to blow the cobwebs away from the old Eastcliff attic, ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. You see, I'd made the mistake of consuming several bottles of commiserative Krug after England's defeat in the rugby final.

Still, at least all I needed was six paracetamol and a good night's sleep to feel right as rain again. I suspect the Cervia will need more than this tub of Jizer to get her gleaming like a new pin:

Update: According to the Steam Museum, the Cervia is on long term loan to our Maritime Museum, and is 'a remarkably important ship, still in her original configuration'. Oh yes, they certainly knew how to configure a ship in them days. Upturned table, weeds growing out of the deck. All essential nautical equipment!

For lovers of old tugs, here's the 1927 steam tug Portwey making its way last month from Canary Wharf to Ramsgate. Not a drop of Jizer in sight!