Is Ramsgate really so terrible?

[Relocatesss]

Hi,

We are thinking of relocating from south London to the coast. I've been doing lots of online research and have shortlisted Folkestone and Ramsgate.

I've read lot of positive things about Folkestone and it seems like a lovely place to live but our budget wouldn't stretch very far there. Ramsgate on the other hand would allow us to have a beautiful, big period home with lots of space. However, I keep reading lots of negative things about Ramsgate and was wondering if any one has moved there recently and loves it? Is it really as depressing as some people make out?

We are in the early stages of this move and I'm aware we need to spend quite a bit of time visiting both places and getting a feel for them but it would be great to hear from anyone that actually lives in Ramsgate.

Thanks so much in advance.

Superb Wetherspoons though

Both have a good stock of large interesting older houses , both have an abundance of crime and unemployment , I personally wouldn't want to live in either , even with hs1 your stuck out on the southeasterly corner of the uk and if you drive you will have the m20 stacking to contend with on occasion .

Ramsgate is grim. Has a serious hard-core drug problem. I wouldn't like there if it was free. I have lived in Kent almost 40 years.

Interested in this as I've been looking at the same areas for the same reason - also moving from South London. The impression I've been getting from my research has been that while they are "up and coming", they are much like the slightly rough parts of SE London/Kent borders - high deprivation, high-ish rates for crime/antisocial behaviour...

The houses in Hawkinge actually look great for the money but a bit middle of nowhere and you would need to rely on a car for everything.

I'd love to be near the sea but have also been looking at just leaving the South East completely. Cheap areas are cheap for a reason...

I went to Folkestone recently & enjoyed it, no idea what to expect.

Ramsgate doesn't bother me, friends lives there. Never felt unsafe, depends where you are now I guess.

Wasn't Ramsgate the seaside town they went to in Top Boy? If the depiction was even slightly accurate I would avoid!

I don't get this, are you in a gang? Do you avoid Hackney, Brixton, Battersea, etc?

I lived in Folkestone for 22 years but moved away. It’s location, the beaches and cliffs are lovely but the people just seem to be grumpy and low intelligence. I still have all the friends I grew up with but most now live in the villages, Hawkinge or Hythe. I would never move back and now live in the West Country (although mnetters tell me my current town is a dive, we really like it).

I think you need to visit lots and get a real feel for the place and then you’ll know if it suits you.

@m0therofdragons

I lived in Folkestone for 22 years but moved away. It’s location, the beaches and cliffs are lovely but the people just seem to be grumpy and low intelligence. I still have all the friends I grew up with but most now live in the villages, Hawkinge or Hythe. I would never move back and now live in the West Country (although mnetters tell me my current town is a dive, we really like it).

I think you need to visit lots and get a real feel for the place and then you’ll know if it suits you.

“Low intelligence” 😂. Having lived here a couple of years now I do kind of see what you mean, but lots of “smart” people are moving down...families who want to pay off their mortgages yet still being able to commute into London when needed or those who want to try and ensure their children grow up as far away as possible from knife and gang culture for example 😁

Ramsgate is not dangerous a bit visually rough in places granted in ten years it will be considered the next Whitstable...

I spent last weekend in Ramsgate and it is a truly horrible and depressing place.

Property is cheap compared to London and you get so much for your money but surely you want more than a few quirky galleries/vintage (glorified junk) shops? I stayed in a lovely Airbnb overlooking the marina but good lord, anybody wanting to move there permanently needs their head examining.

My MIL lives in Hythe and DH has colleagues and friends commuting from the Folkestone area (about 50mins to St Pancras). West Folkestone is nice as is Hythe (pretty and zero tattiness on the seafront etc) and the villages like Saltwood or Sandgate are lovely too. You get the sea and picturesque coutryside (AONB). Primaries are v good and then it’s either a grammar or not for secondary but the grammars are far easier to get into than the London ones.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk

That’s where you can look up school stats.

Primaries are v good and then it’s either a grammar or not for secondary but the grammars are far easier to get into than the London ones.

This is a big pull for the friends I know who moved.

@malovitt can I ask why you found it so horrible & depressing? What areas do you consider not depressing & horrible.

Personally I prefer Margate because it's more buzzy but don't get the hate in general.

Yes it's deprived & there are drug issues but that's true for many areas of London. Sometimes in London it's maybe easier to not see it but it's there if you look hard enough.

Margate, Ramsgate & Folkestone have been miserable and drug-ridden for decades; they were the original place to 'dump' immigrants in the 80s and the areas never recovered. I know people say Margate is getting better but that's 3 or 4 streets, the rest is all HMOs.

Just next door, though, there are beautiful towns such as Broadstairs, Hythe, Sandwich, Deal .. heck even Herne Bay is on the up!

Out of curiosity, what’s your budget OP?

@waxofffff

Wasn't Ramsgate the seaside town they went to in Top Boy? If the depiction was even slightly accurate I would avoid!

I don't get this, are you in a gang? Do you avoid Hackney, Brixton, Battersea, etc?

No, I'm black and the show depicted it as full of hardcore racists.

Also, lighthearted

Folkestone is changing hugely. It used to be majority UKIP and Tory council, now it's majority Labour and Greens. The DFLs (Down From London's) have meant that although the property prices are rising, the town itself has lots of gentrification going on all the time.

There are down at heel areas, and the white poverty might shock you, but it's more ASBOs than stabbings IYSWIM.

You can get an oat milk flat white anywhere in Folkestone these days, and it has two dedicated vegan restaurants.

[quote waxofffff]@malovitt can I ask why you found it so horrible & depressing? What areas do you consider not depressing & horrible.

Personally I prefer Margate because it's more buzzy but don't get the hate in general.

Yes it's deprived & there are drug issues but that's true for many areas of London. Sometimes in London it's maybe easier to not see it but it's there if you look hard enough.
[/quote]
I find the whole of Thanet quite depressing with maybe the exception of Broadstairs, but my friends who live there report an increase in groups of feral youth roaming around; last month there was a gang attacking trees in a park with a machete and setting fire to the park play equipment. Mass brawls on the beaches, loads of antisocial behaviour is the norm.
Unemployment is over 10% with youth unemployment even higher. It has huge drug and child protection problems. There's a reason why Nigel Farage chose Thanet to try to get elected.
You find Margate buzzy? Really? There's a few streets which are ok with all the DFLs and "creatives"doing their thing but it's mostly a dump. Always has been and always will be.

*Ramsgate has a lovely beach, very large Weatherspoons and a good Turkish restaurant but unfortunately not much else."

With a very large Wetherspoons what more would you need?

@Macramacious well I wouldn't say that is light hearted & I do agree the main drawback with Thanet is the NF affiliation in certain parts although that applies to the whole of Kent imo.

I do find it buzzy in places but I grew up in Hackney (80s) so I guess my "normal" is different to others. What areas don't you consider to be "dumps"?

I have lived in Kent my whole life (except uni), growing up in Thanet and moving to Folkestone in my thirties. I much prefer Folkestone.

The art scene in Margate is smaller and much more hipster. Folkestone is larger, I think, and more accessible.

Folkestone has no soul. It never has done.

I grew up there and know plenty of people still in the area who aren’t, racists thick or dull but are mightily pissed off with attitudes like that from pretentious arty Londoners in search of the new Brighton.

It’s not going to happen no matter how much money they throw at the town

To establish her ‘street’ credentials, DD told all her university friends that the school she attended was literally metres away from the pub featured on Top Boy

There are some gorgeous properties in Ramsgate. And lovely, tolerably quiet, sandy beaches. And a Waitrose. What more could a mumsnetter desire?

I don’t live in Ramsgate, by the way. And this thread is about the first time anybody’s said anything nice about my town on MN. Well, niceish. Normally Herne Bay is just slated. At least on this thread it’s merely damned with faint praise. We’re going up in the world.

I love Ramsgate. Never lived there but walked there a lot. Its historical, on the coast, interesting.

Oh I thought it was Margate in Top Boy. Heard a lot of hype from some creative mates who moved down. Went to visit and could see a handful of shops were trying to create an arty scene near the beach but there were heroin addicts who looked like they were sleeping in a battered tent on the beach and a lot of older alcoholics around. There were also a bunch of middle aged drunk guys who looked like aged football hooligans absolutely smashed at lunchtime outside the front of Spoons. There definitely was an air of despair and Iow aspirations.

A lot of these South East seaside towns are where they dump ex offenders in hostels. The age of foreign travel meant a lot of these places had lots of unused B&Bs and hotels available to rent cheaply to other councils.

Also isn’t Folkestone where some of the locals go out to scream abuse at arriving immigrants?

Gentrification will take a while.