May The Sauce Be With You

Reader Amy from Margate writes:

I was walking past the Lido the other day when I noticed the hotel opposite had been renamed 'Siths Court' (see photo attached). A coach outside was disgorging a load of crumblies who made the evil Emperor Palpatine look positively baby-faced.

What with this, and what appears to be an imperial battlecruiser being constructed on the Rendezvous car park, I am beginning to be concerned that Planet Thanet is turning to the dark side! What next? A Death Star on the Dreamland site?

Keep up the good work,
Amy

Amy, these are not the signs of an imperial invasion you are looking for.

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...

New Year's Heave

Apparently it's your last chance to shake a leg down at the Cliftonville Lido tonight, before they convert the place into (yes you've guessed it) luxury apartments. I'd go, but at 29 I think I'd be classified as a pensioner.

See you in 2008!

Political Football

Margate Architecture, one of the newer kids on the blog, has asked me to highlight the peculiar comings and goings over planning permission for the above building, close to Cliftonville Lido.

Locals will know that the place has been rotting away for many years, but now it seems Rams boss Jim Ward has come along and applied for permission to convert the place into flats. The lad done good, you might opine. Trouble is, it's in a Conservation Area, and is about to be spot listed by English Heritage. Yet Margate Architecture reports that planning notices - those yellow things you see appended to lamp posts - have been conspicuous by their absence. Not only that, but whilst awaiting a listed status inspection all the splendid old cabinets in the former pharmacy were stripped out - you can see before and after shots here. Presumably they've been recycled into trophy cabinets.

Personally I think it would be a crying shame to demolish the curvy, Victorian shop front and replace it with breeze blocks and one of those plastic portholes that pass for a door around here. But then I'm afraid the writing is already on the wall. Does anyone remember the Outfitters Gallery debacle last May? We were promised a full inquiry into that, since when not a sausage. Maybe it's gone into extra time.

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.