A fair share of winners in Spencer Square on September 17, 2023

The Ramsgate Design Awards were held back in September with their first award ceremony since 2018, post Covid. And the winner for “Best Retail and Hospitality” was...Vincent’s Café, Spencer Square.

The Ramsgate Society (the awarding body) said: “[They] have revitalised a moribund building with style and élan and brought both life and tennis back to the square.”

We saw plenty of that (“life and tennis”) just a few days later, in a Heritage Open Day (HOD) event in the square, staged by Friends of Spencer Square (FOSS) in collaboration with Vincent’s Café.

An art show, well supported by local artists, and a display of championship level tennis gave a good crowd an enjoyable afternoon. More than a dozen local artists displayed some great artwork, and the tennis was, well, amazing.

Gavid Vickers (Head Coach of Infinity Tennis) said: “I’m sure that this is the highest level of tennis ever played in Spencer Square”. For an historic hour and a half, the crowd watched two young tennis champion players go at the contest at full speed and power.

Jack Pegden is Men’s Singles Kent Open Champion 2023 and is a National Champion as part of the County Cup Team. He is seventeen years old and is from Ramsgate.

On the other side of the net was Ewan Grieve. Ewan has represented Kent County and has won multiple titles including under 18’s Kent’s Doubles Open in both 2022 and 2023. At 18 years old he trains in Canterbury.

Jack won an exciting two set match over an hour and a half. To commemorate the event Annie Cull, FOSS’ most accomplished tennis enthusiast, presented Jack with a crown, and the title Spencer Square Champion 2023 to add to his achievements.

I think the tennis was amazing and we hope to see the like again. Also, it is great to have local artists displaying their work in Spencer Square. Thanks to Hold Creative Spaces and York Street Gallery for spreading the word.

With our link to Van Gogh and with Vincent’s café as well, we hope that artists display their work regularly in Spencer Square. It was good to see them hanging their work on the fences; it reminded me of Bayswater Road in London.

Only one thing worried me: rain was forecast, but the gods smiled upon us. I very much hope it will be HOD same time, same weather and same place next year.

Written by:
Dominic Murphy
Chair of Friends of Spencer Square
www.ourfoss.org.uk
Photos by Pierluigi del Renzio, Dominic Murphy and Helen Pipins.