Underground Ramsgate

The highlight of our stay in Ramsgate was a guided tour of the astonishing tunnel system created beneath the town in 1939 as war approached.

The ingenious plan of Ramsgate’s Borough Engineer, Dick Brimmell, was to create a 3.25 mile long network of tunnels in the chalk bedrock, which would mean that most residents need only walk five minutes to find shelter. The plans were ridiculed by some, leading to Arthur Kempe being labelled as the ‘Mad Mayor’ but their determination to keep pushing the plans forward would ultimately save the lives of thousands of townsfolk.

The southern portal of the former railway tunnel on Marina Esplanade, now the entrance to the museum

It took three attempts to get Home office approval to construct the tunnels, but once approval was granted in March 1939 progress was swift. The first section of tunnels were opened by the Duke of Kent on 1st August 1939.

The deep shelters could hold 60,000 people once completed and proved their value when a heavy bombing raid on 24th August 1940 saw 500 high explosive bombs dropped on the town, resulting in a two mile wide trail of destruction. Over the course of the war some 811 buildings were destroyed and a further 8,100 damaged, so it doesn’t take much to imagine how much higher the death toll for the town could have been.

In peacetime the tunnel entrances were sealed up and by the late twentieth century the casual by passer would have been forgiven for not having any idea of their existence. Nevertheless, the tunnels have longed proved a point of fascination for many, from local teenagers to urban explorers. The persistence of local volunteers paid off in 2014 when the tunnels were opened to the public with the help of Heritage Lottery Fund.

The steps up to Arklow Square from one branch of the tunnels

A two hour long guided tour of a substantial stretch of the tunnels proved absolutely fascinating, highlighting the way people carried out their lives in the shelters and the traces they left of their time here, including carvings of birds and union jacks, and graffitti scratched into the chalk. The impressive thought that went into the network was apparent at the Arklow Square entrance, where three flights of 100 steps were needed to get folk 60 feet from the surface to the deepest level of the tunnel system.

In the aftermath of the attacks in 1940 many homeless residents set up homes in the railway tunnel connected to the tunnel network, which became known as ‘Tunnel Town’. At the end of our tour we got to see some examples of the re-constructed homes that showed how people managed to live down here.

Our tour guides bring something special to the tours, sharing stories gathered from local residents and their own families. The stories really added to the experience and made the two hours in the tunnels fly by. I particularly liked the story of the post-war attempts to secure the site, with the son of the local builder employed to re-seal any breaches using his advance knowledge for a spot of urban exploration with his friends!

Tours begin in the former railway tunnel that linked the mainline to the seafront terminus, which includes a terrific museum that adds additional colour to the story including the extraordinary evolution of the line from resort railway (1863-1926) to underground narrow-gauge electric tourist railway (1936-1965) with the help of some extra tunneling. It’s a site that is absolutely overflowing with fascinating history and I’m glad that the story has been told so superbly.

Concrete slabs cover the entrance to the tunnels in Boundary Park

It can be a little hard to get a sense of how much of the town you are covering on the tours. I thoroughly recommend the walking tour which allows you to trace the route of the tunnels on the surface. I found that terribly helpful in getting a much better appreciation of the incredible scale of the tunnel system – as well as just how hard it is to spot the evidence of the tunnel entrances unless you know what you are looking for!

The walk from the West Harbour Entrance to the start point for the guided tours is superbly described and helps you hunt down the concrete slabs, subtle changes in bricks and manhole covers that indicate the route of the tunnels.

I would thoroughly recommend the super book The Ramsgate Tunnels: Main Line Public AirRaid Shelter & Scenic Railway by Nick Catford (available from Michaels Bookshop) which is richly illustrated with photographs and includes a copy of the original plans for the A. R. P. tunnel system. The story of the Scenic Railway is wonderfully told in the booklet ‘By underground to the Seaside: The Ramsgate Tunnel Railway’ by Derek Smith which is now up to its fifth reprint (available for purchase from the museum shop when I visited).

A stay at The Grange

Our three nights in Ramsgate were more than a little bit special, staying at The Grange, now restored by the Landmark Trust and available to rent for holidays. It’s quite something to step into the exquisite family home designed by Augustus Pugin, whose pioneering work brought real energy to the Victorian adoption of Gothic Revival architecture and gave us the gothic masterpiece of the Palace of Westminster.

I visited the building on an open day seven years ago, never expecting that I would ever have the opportunity to stay. In fact, anyone can. The spur for us was a small family gathering after a strange year apart and the experience was worth every penny, generating a ton of happy memories from the moment we passed through the red doorway into the courtyard. It’s not quite like stepping from the wardrobe into the magical kingdom of Narnia, but not far short.

Street level view

Looking at the photographs, you could be forgiven for thinking that The Grange would be really visible from the road with a grand drive. Not a bit of it. The building is surrounded by walls that are at their highest next to St Augustine’s Road, giving little clue to the marvel that lies beyond. Augustus Pugin was acutely aware of security, not least because of the wave of anti-catholicism that swept the country in the late 1820s. Today, those high walls do a terrific job at keeping out any noise from the neighbouring streets.

Once inside Pugin’s domain you just have to make a short walk down the covered walkway and unlock a massive wooden door with some fairly solid looking ironwork and bolts. It’s a dramatic way to begin a holiday, with a satisfying clunk as the lock turns, but it’s not how Pugin would have come and gone from the house. In everyday use the family preferred the side door to the scullery and kept the main door bolted to preserve the peace and quiet.

An astonishing array of rooms await exploration. On the ground floor you have an impressive hallway, sitting room, library, dining room, private chapel and a kitchen wing (including a fully equipped kitchen, breakfast room and pantry). Climb up one of the two staircases to the first floor and you will find four bedrooms, but keep going up and you come to the Tower room and then a further set of stairs up to the rooftop. The view over St Augustine’s church, the presbytery and monastery gives you a good sense of the complete gothic landscape here.

A view of The Grange from Screaming Alley

The peace and quiet of the interior today is not how Pugin would have experienced his creation. It was a true family home and his children certainly made their presence felt, with no quiet corner or hiding place for architects. Pugin was known to have written that the noise was such that living in a pig market would be less terrible! It was much quieter for us, even with a summer festival taking place in the park next door.

Perhaps the most striking and inescapable features of the interior is an astonishing vibrant wallpaper with ‘En Avant’ printed repeatedly on a diagonal. This is apparently a faithful reproduction of the original designs discovered hidden behind skirting boards and door architraves. It’s pretty intense as you see it in almost every room, but it is at its most shocking in the dining room in a red and pink variation. Anywhere else it would seem utterly mad, but here it fits perfectly with the painted paneled ceilings, stained glass, gothic furniture and fireplaces.

The interior felt a bit overwhelming at first, even for someone who likes gothic architecture, but you soon see how comfortable it can be. As the light faded it was surprising how cosy it could be to sink into a sofa and read up on the history of the building. If you have a visit in the winter you can get a good fire going to warm the place up, but even with our rather poor summer and chillier than anticipated nights we didn’t reach that point!

One of the intriguing features of the house in Pugin’s day was a tunnel that ran from a carefully hidden corner of the hallway to the shore, affording Pugin quick access to his lugger ‘Caroline’ though this is now blocked up. It’s certainly a house that continued to surprise throughout our stay, from hidden bookcase doors to concealed rising shutters. The carefully restored details in each room present also offer plenty to marvel over.

The hallway

The Grange inevitably seems less radical today than it must have appeared on its completion. It was effectively the prototype for the Victorian family home. At the time this was something new, but it’s really hard to see it in this way now with the knowledge of how this model was replicated across the country in endless variations.

The Landmark Trust have done an incredible job here, restoring the house to something close to its original appearance and removing the later additions that obscured Pugin’s original vision. It’s a privilege to be able to spend some time here and it certainly makes for a memorable family holiday.

Gallery

Three nights in Ramsgate

It’s probably fair to say that Ramsgate is not the most obvious choice when looking for a place to stay for a summer break. That’s a pity, as the town has a surprising amount to offer – a feast of architecture, plenty of history and some terrific tourist attractions. On top of that, the Loop bus means that you are easily connected by regular connections to Broadstairs and Margate.

Our stay here was booked in the midst of the winter lockdown with the hope that it would give us one relatively safe booking for a family gathering in a world of innumerable uncertainties. It certainly gave us that – and much more. These are a few of the highlights from our stay.

The Pugin Trail

The variety of architectural styles in Ramsgate is fascinating, from a rich vein of gorgeous late Georgian gothic and gothic revival buildings to more classical deigns. In the 1840s two of the men we now regard as giants in British architecture were working in Ramsgate – Augustus Pugin and George Gilbert Scott – with each making significant contributions to the built heritage of the town.

St Augustine’s Church

The Pugin Society’s Town Trail helpfully highlights the buildings created by or linked to Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) who managed a prodigious output in his 25 year working life. Augustus Pugin is most well known for his work on the Palace of Westminster but here he created a family home in the gothic style. Next door, Pugin built a ‘perfect church‘ with his own money and using the very best craftsmen. It shows – the church is absolutely stunning with a soaring gothic font, beautiful stained glass and incredible carving.

One of the more intriguing sights on the Pugin trail is the former Granville Hotel (1869) which is the work of his son, Edward Welby Pugin. The structure started life as eight large terraced town houses but when it became clear that these were not going to sell the plans were redrawn to create a luxury hotel with lavish fittings, a series of Turkish baths and some spectacular public chambers. Unfortunately, this pitched Edward into bankruptcy just a few years later – followed not long after by his death.

The building is certainly unique with an extraordinary tower complete with buttresses and battlements on one corner, sufficiently tall that it overlooks the entire complex. Astonishingly, the tower was originally intended to be 170 feet tall (think 11 double decker buses stacked one atop another) so what we see today is actually a restrained and truncated version!

The former Granville Hotel

The Granville had some pretty mixed fortunes – enjoying terrific popularity in the late 19th/early 20th centuries before falling out of favour, not helped by wartime bomb damage. The hotel was converted into flats and the grand public rooms were eventually boarded up, laying forgotten for the past 30 years despite their significance (they are one of the reasons behind the building’s Grade II listing). Now, a plan is now afoot to revive them. Heritage Labs hopes to restore Pugin’s Chambers and turn these rooms into a creative hub and events space.

Ramsgate Tunnels

The number one tourist attraction in Ramsgate is undoubtedly the extraordinary network of underground tunnels created to give the local population protection during an air raid. I have wanted to have a look ever since this opened as a tourist attraction in 2014. A two hour long guided tour of a 3/4 mile section of the complex absolutely flew by and was one of the highlights of our stay, but more about that in the post Underground Ramsgate.

Royal Harbour

I’m a bit of a sunrise addict. There’s nothing I love more on a holiday than rising at some unearthly hour, slipping out of my room while everyone else is asleep and wandering the empty streets to find the perfect spot to watch the sunrise. Beyond that, there’s an hour of glorious views in the golden hour.

My reward this time was a view of the Royal Harbour bathed in a golden glow with the curvaceous red-brick arches and clifftop beyond providing a stunning backdrop. It’s a busy working harbour and a popular mooring for yachtsmen. Although I was up early, many others were up earlier still. There were plenty of folk busy fishing from the East Pier, crews preparing to head out to sea and some lively juvenile ruddy turnstones flitting around.

Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour

On my morning stroll I watched a wide mix of boats set out, ranging from Border Force patrols to ships servicing the offshore wind farms in local waters. The harbour also has a rather special visitor right now, with the paddle steamer and Dunkirk veteran ‘Medway Queen’ on the slipway for hull maintenance and re-painting.

Maritime Museum

The Maritime Museum is located in a gorgeous two storey stone Clock House (1817) on the quayside, a crown jewel among an impressive array of listed buildings around the harbour.

The museum re-opened this summer after a lengthy closure and it was a pleasure to wander round with fascinating displays that covered the Dunkirk evacuation, hovercraft at Ramsgate, the Sally Line ferry operation, Richborough military port and the shipwrecks of the Goodwin Sands. One of the highlights was an intricate Dutch bronze gun raised from the wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1679) which is decorated with a ship motif.

The Clockhouse

It was somewhat surprising to learn that a building of such significance was allowed to deteriorate to the point where it was placed on the Historic England Buildings at Risk List in 2019. Emergency repairs have since stabilised the building. I really hope that the proposals of the Ramsgate Society for a new Ramsgate Maritime Heritage Centre in a renovated Clock House come to fruition.

The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 4pm until October 3. Admission is a very reasonable £2.50 for adults (cash only). It’s a super museum, run by enthusiastic volunteers, and well worth a look.

Shakey shakey

A special mention has to go to Shakey Shakey, a traditional fish bar, which might not look much from the outside but served up what my partner described as the best fish and chips in centuries. The portions were extremely generous and the chips that accompanied the beautifully cooked fish were extraordinary, coated in their signature ‘shakey shakey’ seasoning. Expectations were well and truly smashed!

Gallery

A glimpse into Pugin’s Ramsgate

The pain of an early morning train down to Ramsgate today was amply rewarded by a wonderful glimpse into the home of Augustus Pugin (1812-1852), a world away from his most famous creations – the stunning gothic interior of the Palace of Westminster and the clock tower better known as Big Ben.

The Grange

The Grange was the home that Augustus Pugin built for his family in 1843-44, richly decorated with colourful wallpaper, panelling and furnishings of his own design. It was also a revolutionary building in its day, demonstrating Pugin’s rejection of popular classical architecture for a design dictated by internal function, rather than outward appearance.

The building was purchased by the Landmark Trust in 1997 and restored after careful analysis of the fragments lefts from its original decoration. The Grange re-opened after the completion of its £2.6m restoration in 2006 and is now available to let as the most astonishing of holiday accomodation. Today’s opening (as part of Heritage Open Days) offered the chance to see the entire building, though tours offered throughout the year offer a chance to see the main rooms.

The building offers many surprises and delights, including a wonderfully grand dining room and the library in which Augustus Pugin designed the interiors for the House of Lords.

Pugin’s wallpaper designs included the family motto ‘en avant’ (forward)

Pugin’s portfolio reflects his devout Catholicism, including many churches, convents and monasteries. The same influences can be seen throughout his house, which includes a private chapel, and in its positioning at the heart of a complex that includes St Augustine’s church (constructed in 1845-1852 following Pugin’s vision of Christian architecture) and St Edward’s Presbytery (constructed in 1849).

A visit to St Augustine’s Church offers as many wonderful delights as the house, including a spectacular font in the gothic style that Augustus Pugin is renowned for. It was one of the highlights in the medieval court at the Great Exhibition of 1851. After his death in 1852, Augustus Pugin, was buried in the chantry chapel.

The unfinished square tower of St Augustine’s Church

The building that sits between the church and the house, St Edward’s Presbytery, was purchased by the Landmark Trust in 2010. It was a timely intervention as the the presbytery had been placed on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk Register after a backlog of maintenance left it in poor condition. The Trust now wants to restore Pugin’s original vision by removing the twentieth century additions, conserving the original features that remain and restoring some lost elements. Further details of their plans are available from the campaign website.

Our visit to the complex was fascinating. It is well worth keeping an eye out for the occasional full open days at The Grange as it is wonderful to be able to wander through the entire suite of rooms, including the tower from which Pugin used to gaze upon distressed vessels on the Goodwin Sands. Thankfully, today’s calm seas offered no such vision!

Gallery