Heritage Lab Ramsgate has agreed to take a 20-year lease from Thanet District Council to redevelop eight Art Deco shelters on Ramsgate’s East Cliff lower promenade.
Looking directly out to sea, the shelters, which are roughly 6m by 2m in size, show some hallmarks of late Art Deco design, and are spread either side of the Pulhamite steps below Winterstoke Gardens.
Heritage Lab Ramsgate intends to redevelop the shelters to form a mixture of spaces that the public and visitors can enjoy for years to come and is seeking to engage with the local community over their potential future uses. They hope to have the shelters open for the summer 2026 season.
Proposals for the shelters include a food and drinks outlet, a sauna, water sports and fishing facilities, beach huts, a community and educational space or art space.
One of the shelters will be restored to its original purpose with seated benches and information on the history of the area. Heritage Lab Ramsgate intends to connect power, water and waste services.
The organisation has launched an online consultation where people can share their views and ideas about how the shelters can best be used in future. This can be found at
heritagelab.org.uk/shelters.
A short video about the project can be found here:
https://youtu.be/gTrDy6nVxmI
“
We are excited to be able to kick start this new project thanks to a viability grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund which will help to pay for the research, design and early development costs. The project epitomises our ambition to develop curiously creative spaces, and we hope that this will help the regeneration of the East Cliff area and Ramsgate more widely.”
Rob Kenyon, CEO, Heritage Lab CIC
“
We’re delighted to be supporting Heritage Lab, one of our Heritage Development Trusts, with a viability grant to investigate how best to repurpose these quirky Art Deco Shelters to support local cultural engagement. The Grade II-listed Pulhamite rock garden into which these shelters are built is part of Ramsgate’s rich architectural heritage, and we are so pleased to see Heritage Lab leading efforts to secure a resilient future for the site.”
Kelcey Wilson-Lee, Head of Programmes & Deputy CEO, Architectural Heritage Fund
History
The shelters were built in 1936 as part of an ambitious Ramsgate Borough Council project for a new undercliff promenade and Chine steps along the East Cliff, linking the newly opened Marina Bathing Pool and Boating Lake with the clifftop Winterstoke Gardens.
The bathing pool, completed in 1935, included an Olympic-sized pool and diving area, and was filled with filtered sea water. The pool closed at the end of the 1975 season when serious structural faults were discovered in the floor of the pool and later filled in to become a public car park.
Winterstoke Gardens sun shelter and rock gardens were laid out and presented to the Borough of Ramsgate by Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills in 1920 and opened to the public in June 1923.
One of the shelters is built into the Chine steps, which are constructed with Pulhamite - an artificial rock made of a proprietary Portland Stone cement covering masonry or a backing structure, developed in the 1840s by James Pulham. The East Cliff Chine is the last known rockwork by ‘James Pulham and Son’ and one of their largest coastal constructions. Ramsgate holds an impressive collection of Pulhamite rockwork gardens in five locations – Madeira Walk, Winterstoke Gardens, West Cliff Chine, East Cliff Chine and the Royal Parade arches.