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Filming in Thanet
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Email: press.office@thanet.gov.uk
Phone: 01843 577034 577169
Fax: 01843 295343
Focus on Ramsgate
Ramsgate’s been named as one of the country’s hot spots
for 2006 by Country Life magazine. They listed the town at number
five amongst places most likely to benefit from city workers buying
properties. So what’s helped to push Ramsgate so high up the
list?
The town boasts some of the best examples of Regency and
Victorian architecture in the south east of England, with
picturesque promenades and crescents. It also enjoys the highest
concentration of listed buildings in the region – 900 throughout
the town and more than 200 surrounding the Port of Ramsgate’s
historic Royal Harbour Marina.
The Harbour was first granted its Royal status in 1821 by King
George IV in recognition of the hospitality shown to him during his
visit and to this day remains the only one in the country to have
received this honour. It’s also got one of the most stunning
Harbour views in the country, with many seafront properties
enjoying views over the 700 berth marina.
It was a seafront site that the internationally renowned
architect Augustus Pugin chose for his own family home, The Grange,
which he designed in 1843-44. It was here that Pugin designed the
interior of the House of Lords and the Mediaeval Court at the Great
Exhibition and the property remained in the Pugin family until
1928.
Only a short walk from the seafront is the bustling town centre,
with its thriving high street, full of national, independent and
specialist retailers. There’s a growing café culture, concentrated
in the centre and on the seafront, offering a range of restaurants
and bars.
Ramsgate’s improved transport links are also seen as positive by
investors. The Port of Ramsgate runs the only cross-channel
passenger ferry service to Belgium, with services daily to Ostend.
Significant improvements to the road network have brought Ramsgate
to just over an hour’s drive from the outskirts of London along
mainly motorway and dual carriageway routes. Rail links are the
next focus, with high speed passenger services expected to start in
2009, which will bring reducing the commuting time to the capital
to just 63 minutes.