I learned to swim off Seasalter beach, went cockling there and then used to swim on summer evenings near West Beach where the original Spider Cafe sat, on the beach. It was bloody idyllic. Just an ordinary seaside town with a working harbour. The May sunsets are still a glorious and almost spiritual experience.
I never really got the whole 'Bubble' thing, my first house I bought there for £65,000 and it recently sold for £650,000 (I didn't own it then btw!). It's crazy.
Margate was the go-to for the funfair, and toffee apples and the fights between the mods and rockers. So exciting. How sad that Thanet has been neglected by government and business for so very long. That tiny slice of artsy where the Turner Gallery is, a stone's throw from where live the most vulnerable and impoverished people you could find.
I have/had nothing against people coming to visit for the day to Whitstable - but I really resented the amounts of illegal parking of huge 4x4s on the tiny streets (since it seemed such folk weren't concerned about paying a parking fine), the mess, terrible mess, that was often left in the public spaces. It wasn't pleasant at times, walking by the beach after a Saturday night, and finding the remnants of someones discarded meat cartons, bbqs and drink cans, dirty nappies, sainsburys bags full of rubbish because the bins were overflowing and people just thought it was ok to leave it there rather than take it home.