Where to Stay in Margate, England

What is Margate known for?

Dreamland Margate and the Scenic Railway stand behind the seafront, and on warm summer weekends the sands are thronged with day visitors who came for exactly that pairing of beach and amusement park. Cold wet days have their own list. The Crab Museum, the Margate Old Town Local History Museum and Droit House cover those, and Hartsdown Park takes the sport.

What are the main landmarks in Margate?

The Parish Church of St John the Baptist and the Parish Church of St Peter the Apostle carry the older parish names. Tudor House and India House survive from the same centuries, while the Margate Old Town Local History Museum, the Crab Museum and Droit House hold the collections. Dreamland Margate takes the seafront.

Hartsdown Park, the Church of All Saints, the Church of St Saviour, the Church of St Paul and St James round out the built list, with the Friend Of All Nations RNLI Surf Boat Memorial and the John Sanger Memorial among the smaller monuments.

What is the history of Margate?

People were on this ground early. The Anglo-Saxon cemetery, Dane Valley Road records the earliest named period on Margate's heritage list, and the Quex Park settlements belong to the same long stretch of occupation before the town took anything like its present shape. Later came the Dent-de-Lion medieval gatehouse.

Parish work fell to the Parish Church of St John the Baptist and the Parish Church of St Peter the Apostle, which carried those centuries into the town that followed. Tudor House and India House stand from the years before the sands drew visitors, and Droit House belongs to the same working stretch of the harbour. Sea-bathing changed that.

Cliftonville, Westbrook, Garlinge and Palm Bay grew into the town as it spread along the north Kent coast, and the Clifton Villa Estate dates from the terraces that went up for the visitors who arrived by water and rail. Dreamland Margate gave the seafront its amusement park, and the Scenic Railway has stood in it since. Then the decline came.

Margate suffered the usual decline of the English seaside towns, though the beach still fills on warm summer weekends and the Margate Old Town Local History Museum and the Crab Museum keep the wet-weather trade. St James, the Church of All Saints, the Church of St Saviour and the Church of St Paul mark the congregations that the growing town built for. The John Sanger Memorial and the Friend Of All Nations RNLI Surf Boat Memorial record the rest.

Where is Margate?

The town runs 2 miles along the shore. Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook all fall inside it, and Margate itself sits in the Thanet District of Kent, 16 miles north-east of Canterbury and open to the sea along its whole seaward edge. The water sets the limit.

Hartsdown Park and the Dandelion Paddock account for the open ground away from the front, and the Quex Park settlements lie in the country behind.

What is the climate of Margate?

Sea air governs the year here. Margate stands on the north Kent coast in a temperate band, so summers stay warm enough to fill the sands at weekends without ever turning hot, and winters run damp rather than hard. Cliftonville and Westbrook get the same weather.

Cold wet days come in any season, which is why the Crab Museum and the Margate Old Town Local History Museum matter to a visit as much as the beach does.

How do you get to Margate?

Canterbury is the inland anchor. Margate lies 16 miles north-east of Canterbury, so most arrivals cross the Thanet District from inland before the north Kent coast opens out at the seafront. Westbrook, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Cliftonville all lie inside the town, a short local run apart.

Dreamland Margate faces the sands. Hartsdown Park lies inland from the front.