Granville Designs

Yikes! I see Surrey-based developer Jason Hough has re-submitted his plans to build 346,907 flats with three parking spaces on the Granville Eyesore, here on Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff!

Actually there's not much more I can say about this that our local Bibliobloke hasn't already said on his excellent thanetonline blog. Click here for that.

Jason and the architects, Clague of Canterbury, are still proposing a hideous, 80s-style monstrosity, much taller than any previous structure that was on the site, along the lines of the one that was wholeheartedly rejected last year. The only difference appears to be that he has counted 100 parking spaces in the area, thus justifying the mingey parking allocation on his site. All I can say is that he must have counted them on a wet Wednesday in December, not in the blazing heat of a sunny Saturday in August, with a scout concert going on at the Granville Theatre.

If Kent Highways, who were one of the main objectors last time, fall for that, then they must be dafter than we all give them credit for.

The other sticking point last time was Jason's refusal to contribute a sum of some £50K to the community chest, to cover the extra strain on local services and infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads, etc) which such a huge development would inevitably place. Poor Jason said it would mean his development wasn't financially viable. To which the correct response is: 'So you want to subsidise your development with public money, eh?'

Whilst all the focus is rightly on the Pleasurama Eyesore down on the front, the Granville Eyesore eyesore pre-dates Pleasurama by some 15 years. That's right. More than 30 years an eyesore. Much of the hoarding around the site is now dilapidated, and the entire area looks a mess.

So I'm not agin development as such. But please Jason, come up with some plans that everyone can get behind!!

Update: The deadline for comments on this proposal is 14 March 2014, not 4 March (which is what the silly council duffers put on their letter to local residents). You can email them at planning.services@thanet.gov.uk

Open All Hours?

I'm pleased to report that my Twankey is going down well in Bournemouth! Hurrah! However, it does mean that I've become slightly semi-detached from the Thanet scene. Boo!

Nonetheless, I'm still getting a torrent of emails from my spies around the septic isle, and this one especially caught my eye. It's a proposal to re-open the Granville bars on the trendy East Cliff in the Millionaires' Playground. Apparently Punch Taverns are looking to sub-lease the space, and an application for a premises licence will be made shortly. According to the blurb above, the bars retain 'a very rare... Putin fire place'. Just the thing to go with one's iced Litvinenko Vodka, methinks.

So in the not-too-distant future there could be a boutique hotel, a theatre and cinema, and a couple of bars (if you include the San Clu), all within a hop and skip from the old cliff top mansion.

Crikey! At the rate things are going, it'll be just like Sandbanks! Pip pip!

Click here for more details on the James A Baker website.

Huge Erection At Very Short Notice

Reader Samantha writes:

I see the planning application for the massive development behind the Granville on Ramsgate's East Cliff is due to go before TDC's Planning Committee this Wednesday.

To put this in perspective, if this development goes ahead it will be about a third of the size of the proposed Pleasurama development on the front.

As a local resident who will be enormously affected by this proposal to build 38 flats with only 19 parking spaces, I feel that the council should really have given me more notice than a second class letter, posted last Monday, to arrange to speak before the Committee by today.

I have already objected to this development on the grounds of the materials used, the height, and the woeful lack of parking space. I understand that the plans have been altered since they were first submitted in January, and the number of parking spaces reduced even further! Neither the developer's architect - Clague of Canterbury, who I emailed months ago - nor the council, have updated me on any of these issues, despite being able to hold 'public meetings' with the current residents of Granville House and Granville Court.

I agree that the site, which has been derelict for 30 years, needs something done, but if it isn't done in close consultation with the people who live around it, the chances are that we will have yet another Pleasurama debacle on our hands. Yet again, it seems that local democracy and accountability is singularly lacking in Thanet.

Hmmm. Well, Samantha, that certainly is a poke in the, er, eyesore for Thanet Council!

Update: The application was rejected by the planning committee. A victory for common sense, methinks!

Loss Of Fascia At Local Featre

Er, theatre. That should read 'theatre'. But it didn't alliterate. Could have used 'feature' I suppose.

Um. O....key dokey. Moving swiftly on, out for my post-prandial constitutional this arvo, I couldn't help noticing that Ralph 'Mr Ramsgate' Hoult's 'R's has blown off. Well, not just his 'R's, but his 'E's, 'L's, and every other flamin' letter in 'Granville Theatre and Cinem'. (The final 'A' blew off yonks ago).

See what I mean?

November 2007

July 2009

Hammer Blow To Granville?

I say! Those cads at the council appear to be refusing to chuck a 10G lifeline to our luxury Granville Theatre and Cinem here on Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff! According to the local red top, the trust which took over the venue last year is short of folding. But despite a request for a rent holiday, they've received a terse 'Niet!' from the heartless apparatchiks at the TDC politburo.

If the Granville closes, that'll take the number of cultural venues here in the Millionaires' Playground down to a big fat zero. Let's recap:

Pleasurama - gone
Motor Museum - gone
Maritime Museum - gone
Casino - gone
Model Village - gone
IOTA Gallery - gone
Cinemas - gone
Pooland - gone. Although that place was, in all fairness, a bit shit actually.

What kind of a Millionaires' Playground is this anyway? I suppose at least the library, which had gone, is due to return any, er, year soon!

Click here to read full story in Thanet Times

Angina Hits The G-Spot

Ooh I say! It all seems to have gone a bit saucy down at our luxury Granville Theatre and Cinem, here on Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff! Not only have they erected new signage which consists of a very large G with three spots underneath, but on 14 and 15 November they're putting on The Angina Monologues, 'a humorous, spirited and poignant look at the lives of 10 very different women featuring subjects as diverse as Cockney weddings, trips to Benidorm and Stolen art'.

Presumably inspired by the celebrated off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues, or even Thanet's very own Angina Monologues, or perhaps comedian Sol Bernstein's, er, Angina Monologues or maybe Canadian corporate therapist and former heart attack patient Lou Eisen's, um, Angina Monologues oh gawd I think I've lost the plot.

Meanwhile I hear a couple of bright sparks over in Margate are planning to strike a blow for masculinism with a plan to stage their new play The Denis Dialogues. And apparently they've found the perfect venue for it...

Getting All Theatrical

Dear Richard,

I was happily reading your blog this morning, which, I must say, is generally very informed and witty, when I came across both good and bad.....

Firstly, many thanks for mentioning Pierremont Pharmacy's flu' clinic in such detail - we are a local business, set up by two ex-Chatham House boys, and are battling it out with the superpowers of Boots, Superdrug, Paydens and the supermarkets in Broadstairs High Street.

We seem to be going from strength to strength, and have recently been recognised as the leading clinical pharmacy in the country, winning both the "C+D Platinum Design Award" for Service Innovation, and "Clinical Service of the Year" in the C+D Awards 2008, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in June.

On the other hand, one of my other ventures, the Granville Theatre in Ramsgate, was not mentioned in such glowing terms....

To describe the "culture" as a "rolling programme of psychic nights and amdram productions" does little to justify the nearly two years of hard work that my team and I have put in, with no prospect of profit, to try and reinvigorate live entertainment in Ramsgate. In trying financial times, and with the development of a multiplex cinema on our doorstep, we have continued to trade, and have run successful productions of Musical Theatre, Pantomime, Plays and Concerts, including professional acts such as "Kiki Dee", "Over The Rainbow - The Eva Cassidy Story" and "Abbalicious!". We also house productions by notable local companies such as Ramsgate Operatic Society and The Broadstairs Dickens Players, and offer children the opportunity to perform in our Stage Schools and dance classes.

Furthermore, Ralph Hoult, one of my team, is also in the process of trying to relaunch events at the Eastcliff Bandstand for the benefit of the local population.

I don't know whether you have visited our venue recently, but we have made significant investment in refurbishing the formerly run-down premises, including redecoration inside and out, refurbishing the bar and public toilets, and installing disabled facilities. We have also spent large amounts of money on technical theatre, namely high quality sound and lighting.

Seeing as we are a Community venture, owned by more than seventy locals (many of them Ramsgatonians) I am disappointed at your view of our business.

I would like to invite you to visit our venue and see for yourself the progress that has been made since the days of Brian Stout. I would be happy to arrange a tour of the premises for you, to enable you to make more informed judgement about our business.

Kind regards,

Stephen Foster,
Chief Executive,
Granville Theatre Limited

'No Sex' In Ramsgate

Our luxury Granville Theatre & Cinem is reviving that 70s hit No Sex Please, We're British. Performances run from 6-9 February, tickets £8.

At the time the farce became a byword for the Brits' stiff (if that's the right word) approach to all matters pertaining to the bedroom, but of course things have changed in the intervening 30 odd years. I suggested they update the title to the much more contemporary Dogging, Binge Drinking and Vast Quantities of Class A Drugs Please, We're British, but my idea seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Click here for the Granville website

Pinafore Signal

I arrived back in the Millionaires' Playground rather late from the smoke last night, following somewhat heated negotiations over pulling off my Twankey at the Willesden Empire this year. So it was with some dismay that I discovered there wasn't a single parking space to be had on the entire East Cliff. Even the double yellows had been colonised.

Now I know it's become rather trendy and upwardly mobile around here, and that consequently parking is at a premium. But imagine my dismay when the penny finally dropped that it was the opening night of the Ramsgate Operatic Society's production of HMS Pinafore at our deluxe Granville Theatre and Cinem, and that an invitation to the East Cliff's most prominent celebrity (moi) had been, er, overlooked.

Oh well. I was never much of a fan of Gilbert O'Sullivan anyway.

We've Been Framed

Word is they're showing a bit of a weepie tomorrow night at the East Cliff's luxurious Granville Theatre & Cinem.

Thanet Under Threat, billed as 'a new film about local people's concerns over the pace of development and excess building in this area' kicks off at 7.30pm, and will be followed by an open discussion. The director, Christine Tongue, says it's 'intended to raise development issues and open a wider discussion on what people actually want as opposed to what they seem to be having imposed on them'.

I'll be there, of course. Although as the intention is to film the discussion, I'll be wearing my habitual disguise of trilby, shades and false beard. I should blend in perfectly!

Blue Act For Granville Theatre

Yet more evidence, if it was needed, that Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff is the place to be. Work on tarting up the exterior of our super-duper Granville Theatre-ma has finished, and although it still bears more than a passing resemblance to a public toilet block on steroids, the tasteful shade of light blue is a definite improvement on the previous tones of sh*te brown.

With the private sector doing its bit to beautify the area, what a shame our local council can't get off its lardy backside and return the compliment by fixing the two adjacent Victorian shelters which have been 'undergoing repair' since February.

June: Brown

August: Blue