Heritage Building Skills School planned for Ramsgate

The Isle of Thanet has 2,500 listed buildings, which is the largest concentration in the southeast of England. Most are repaired with Portland cement including those managed by Thanet District Council. There is a real need for heritage skills here, for both re-training and apprenticeship programmes and most of all the recognition that heritage is the key to the town’s regeneration.

The Ramsgate Historic Quarter is a concentration of early 18th century houses. The sea captains who made fortunes trading with Russia, Norway and New England built grand houses to reflect their status. The area was known as Westminster, not only because the road heads west but because of the high quality of its architecture.

Better known, are the white stucco terraces from the Regency era when Ramsgate became a fashionable resort after the Napoleonic wars. A golden age followed with Pugin building St Augustine’s and Coleridge, Darwin and van Gogh renting on the Westcliff. Affluence continued into the 20th century with red brick terraced houses, a grand Edwardian theatre and an art deco lift.

But it’s not just the buildings that are important but the street lighting, paving, clean streets and the end of the dominance of traffic. Ultimately, heritage conservation is about quality of life, for the residents and visitors today and to generate jobs and promote the sense of being part of something we can identify with.

We plan to create a permanent heritage building skills school at the port, with lime kilns, salvaged bricks, Kent peg tiles and to acquire a building for teaching and administration. Ultimately, it is contributing to changing the perceived value of what we have; magnificent sandy beaches, towering chalk cliffs and some of the finest heritage buildings anywhere in the kingdom.

Our first workshop will be on the September 26 and 27, led by Gerard Lynch.

Contact info@ramsgatehistoricquarter.org for more information or call 07812 363272.

Written by:
Robert Milton Wallace
Ramsgate Historic Quarter Scheme