Surge Of Sympathy

Sitting here in the luxurious splendour of my five star suite at the Bournemouth Travelodge, I can't help feeling sorry for anyone on the Ile de Thanet affected by last night's storm surge. Mind you, speaking personally, the old cliff top mansion stands at least 100 feet above any such watery nonsense, and Natasha, my housekeeper, reports it's as dry as a bone this morning.

TBH, quite why anyone would want to purchase a property at sea level these days, what with climate change and the world's oceans rising at the rate of a metre a year, gawd knows!

And it is with that tenuous link in mind that I congratulate the lovely Emma Irvine and her husband Ben on finally getting the keys to Albion House, high and dry on the trendy East Cliff in the Millionaires' Playground, off the council. They plan to spend a heap of dosh on refurbishing it, and opening it as a boutique hotel next year.

They recently held an open day, with guided tours of the pile. There's a video of that below.

And congrats, too, to that nice Dr Who lady, who's also finally got the council's thumbs up for her Project Motorhouse in the old Ramsgate Motor Museum! There's another video below the video below showing her plans for how that will pan out. So, it's all go Ramsgate!!!!!!!

Anyway, moustache as I need to devote a coupla minutes to polishing my Twankey ahead of this afternoon's matinee. Toodle-oo!

Motor Museum Shifts Into Top Gear

My TV chums at Beeb South East were out filming here in the Millionaires' Playground this morning - it was all part of a story about the old Motor Museum (aka Project Motorhouse, aka West Cliff Hall) which will air on tonight's prog.

Ramsgate celebs Brenda Blethyn (aka The Greatest Living Thanetian) and Janet Fielding (aka former Doctor Who companion Tegan) were on hand to help clear the garden for the cameras ahead of next month's benefit (in, er, Slough), which will feature no fewer that ten Doctor Who companions and at least one actual Doctor Who!

Let's hope they raise enough funds to regenerate (geddit?!??!) this derelict building, which is a key part of our lovely sea front!

Click here to watch on BBC iPlayer (About 18 minutes in. Available until tomorrow evening.)

Do also take a gawp at this short promo the Project Motorhouse people made a couple of years ago...

Flog Your Assets

Shushing back to the Millionaires' Playground in the old Priapus yesterday evening, I almost drove straight on into the harbour as I passed West Cliff Hall (motor museum in old money).

Despite a well organised, well developed and well backed citizen-led plan to return the crumbling pile into a useful space for the people of Ramsgate, the rotters at TDC have gone and bunged it up for auction. And as residential too! What's that all about? A quick tour of the Harman Healy website revealed, er, west cliff 'all.

My spies tell me that the sign's appeared without notice, and despite a promise to consider carefully the proposal to turn it into a community arts space and cafe. A sort of Van Gogh Contemporary but at a fraction of the cost, if you like. Ah, er, now that may explain it. The Cecil Square duffers wouldn't want anything on the south side upstaging their precious, £24m Turnip, would they?

Meanwhile I see the whole of the Gazunder's second page is devoted this week to the World According to Chief Duffer Councillor Baywatch, in which he says he intends to conduct a review of all properties and sites for sale under the council's asset disposal programme. But presumably not this one. 'The lengths that people are prepared to go to to protect these sites may mean that we have misjudged public opinion,' says the Bearded One in a triumph of understatement.

Update: The Mayor of Ramsgate has now said in the comments to this post 'Auction has been suspended pending detail disscussion with interested group.' Phew!

Ramsgate Man Chuffed Off With Hornby

By Isle of Thanet Gazunder Tourism Editor Sandy Gusset

A Ramsgate man has claimed his idea for a Hornby Museum on the isle has been stolen - by Hornby!

The Margate manufacturer opened its doors to visitors this weekend, with millions expected to marvel at the Scalextric cars, Airfix models and toy trains on display.

Now Thanet millionaire and socialite Richard Eastcliff, 29, says he wrote to the firm last year suggesting a Hornby visitor attraction in Ramsgate's former Motor Museum.

'I told their marketing manager it would be a fantastic addition to the island's range of indoor tourism offerings,' said Mr Eastcliff. He added he had even suggested a name - Hornbyland.

Mr Eastcliff says he is now working on an alternative attraction for the disused West Cliff Hall called ThanetWorld. 'It will be an intriguing tribute to Kent's Ramsgate Peninsula,' he said. 'We hope to attract thousands of visitors a week with our displays of hair straightening products, double glazing and bad tattoos.'

Hornby was unavailable for comment.

Richard Eastcliff is 29.

Piston Broke

Reader Duncan from Ramsgate's less trendy west side writes:

I see the Thanet District Council beauraucrats have been out in force again, wasting money. Their latest addition to the 'over-cluttered by council pointless signage' landscape is on my doorstep on Royal Esplanade in Ramsgate.

A sign telling us all that motorised model cars are not to be used on the former putting green next to the Rose Gardens is an absolute joke. It is neither enforceable by the Council, nor serves any useful purpose to the public as a whole. I cannot see the harm in these seemingly enthusiatic people playing their sport and causing no harm to others on a patch of grass too bumpy to be of any other recreational use.

How much did this pointless sign cost to supply and erect? And surely it would have been better spent putting towards a fund to refurbish the decaying shelters along the esplanade, not to mention the environmental impact it has on the impression of the area.

I am almost tempted to buy a motorised model car and drive it on that area as a personal protest to the petty bureaucracy that has come about from a possible one or two complaints from people who lead shallow and empty lives.

Well quite, Duncan. To cheer you up I've appended a pic of the Bucket and Spade Run which took place on the adjacent Government Acre recently. Our beloved council appears to have no problem letting these splendid jalopies onto its unmanicured lawns. Not to mention allowing an entire motor museum go to pot!

Blast From The Past

Crumbs! It's amazing what you can find trawling through back issues of Adscene! Here's Sandy Beach, just before the 2007 local elections, handing over the keys of Ramsgate's West Cliff Hall (or 'Motor Museum' in old money) with the front page headline: New Life For Motor Museum! According to Sandy, the god-botherers in the picture were going to renovate the building and install a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and pie factory.

That was more than two years ago now. And I haven't noticed anything other than weeds going up at the place. Oh well, the photo served its purpose I suppose - Sandy got re-elected. That's the main thing, eh?

Bangers And Rash

To the excellent Bucket and Spade Run this afternoon, which was held on Government Acre here in the Millionaires' Playground. The B&S is an annual ghost of Ramsgate's proud motoring heritage, which more or less finally carked it when the Motor Museum closed a few years ago. Indeed, if one were to delve further back into the mists of time, you'd find tales of speed trials being held on the Western Undercliff. Yep, thems were the days.

Forutnately the sun shone on the petrolheads and a splendid time was had by all. Congrats to the Ramsgate Old Motor and Cycle Club who put on the event.

Of course, I exhibited the new G-Wiz. But I have to say there wasn't a lot of interest. And now I find the rather cheap plastic seats in the thing have brought the old Eastcliff derriere out in a plague of pimples. Fortunately I'm smarter than the average Thanetian and can therefore find my arse with both, or if push comes to shove, one hand. So while I go and rub on the ointment, here are some more piccies of marvellous old jalopies.

Windy City

Remember this headline from a few weeks back? Just before the local elections, our glorious leader Sandy Beach was photographed handing over the keys of our dilapidated West Cliff Hall to the Global Generation Church, who were going to renovate the building and install a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and pie factory.

Not much has happened since then, apart from the story being pretty much nixed by our council's chief executive. So what to do with the place?

Well, I've had a brainwave (I get them constantly but this is a good 'un). With the Millionaires' Playground soon to be the centre of construction for the massive wind farm that's going to blight sea views for the Arsonists and Dickensians, why not convert the hall into a visitor centre? We could even get the old West Cliff lift running again, so people could nip down and have a shufti around the port.

There's plenty of interest in fart farms, what with the climate being turned up to 11, and companies like E.ON getting in on the act with that TV ad. Who knows, Ramsgate could become a huge, ecological tourist attraction, just like that greenhouse in Cornwall. So, anyone for Ramsgate - The Windy City? Of course, with the emphasis on wind, this would have to be one of the prime exhibits:

West Cliff 'All Use To Us

The future of West Cliff Hall, Ramsgate's former Motor Museum, is still in doubt.

Adscene trumpeted that the listed building had been given a 'new lease of life' on its front page last Thursday, complete with a photo of Our Sandy handing over the keys to representatives of the Global Generation Church, who propose running it as a community centre.

But according to a statement from the council's chief executive yesterday, a lease has yet to be signed, and the church group is only being considered as a 'short term', 'temporary' lessee. The statement adds: 'It appears that Global Generation Church invited Cllr Ezekiel to meet them at the property this week when the photograph was taken. Global were not authorised to have taken this action.'

You can read the full text of the statement on Councillor Green's Eastcliff Matters blog.

According to Global Generation's website the group was reformed in 2001 after some soul searching:

Global Generation took a more detailed look at why God would want a church in Ramsgate, out of this came the realisation that we wanted to be known as a Gift To The Town.

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place, but a much better gift to the town would be a long term solution to restore this wonderful building and bring it back to life for the benefit of all Ramsgatonians.

If you want to see just how neglected the exterior is, here's Philip Page's report on the state of the arts in Ramsgate from ECR TV a few weeks back:

Prayers Come True For West Cliff Hall

Hallelujah! According to today's Thanet Sadscene, Ramsgate's crumbling West Cliff Hall has finally been leased. The Global Generation Church will be running it as a community venue, and is going to spend the next year renovating the dilapidated building. They're promising a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and a pie factory (bit ambitious that last one if you ask me).

Council leader Sandy Beach, who's pictured on the front of the paper handing over the keys, must be praising the lord that yet another eyesore has been sorted in time for the local elections.

Curses! First the library rebuild, now this. No sooner do I knock something than it gets put right!

West Cliff Story

So I thought I'd tootle along to the West Cliff to see what all the fuss was about (see previous post). Talk about timing! The day after the kind of exposure on primetime national TV that most PR people would cream their jocks over, the Grange is closed to visitors.

That got the old grey matter going. What else on Ramsgate's West Cliff could I do to while away the time? Ah yes, the Motor Museum.


Er, no. Not unless I'd brought my hard hat. This is what West Clilff Hall used to look like in its heyday:


Gallery IOTA, maybe? Nope, in a fine example of arts regeneration, that's had to make way for a kiddies playgroup.

Oh well, the pub it is then!

PS: Apologies to Vince Runacre for shamelessly purloining the idea behind his superb Old Ramsgate (then and now) blog. There's some terrific stuff there, so do pay him a visit.