‘Whenever I go there, I feel like I’ve entered a dream… the whole town seems to be inhabited and energised by creativity…. Writers and performance artists, photographers and painters. This is my idea of heaven.’
These words were recently shared by Madonna, but where was the Queen of Pop talking about? Los Angeles? New York? Maybe London at a push? Wrong. Madonna, it turns out, is head over heels in love with… Margate. A seaside town in Kent that, historically, has been through some tough, even tatty, times.
Margate’s decline started in the 70s and 80s when cheap-package foreign holidays began tempting tourists away from UK seaside towns. Many of the town’s hotels and businesses closed, historic buildings were abandoned and everything started to look a little dog-eared.
And yet… last year, it was crowned Britain’s best seaside town by Time Out. Meanwhile, a recent survey by MyBaggage analysed key factors such as house prices and salaries and picked Margate as the UK’s most desirable coastal town for relocations.
So what’s drawing the over 40s?
Aspect Drone Services
Connections and commuter links
If you need to commute to the capital, a direct high-speed train will take you to London St Pancreas in around an hour and 28 minutes. London Victoria by rail takes around 2 hours and 11 minutes.
Cost
A terraced house in Margate will set you back around £279,125, compared to the wider Kent average of £366,589, making Margate 24% cheaper than the wider county average. Want a detatched house? In Margate, that’s likely to cost you in the region of £430,000–£466,000, compared to a wider Kent average £654,707, making the town around 30% cheaper.
Culture
Where to start? There’s the Turner Contemporary – a major free-entry art gallery located on the historic sea-front site where the painter JMW Turner used to stay. There’s Dreamland – a vintage seaside amusement park that’s also free to enter – and features classic fairground rides, a roller disco, street food and live music concerts.
The Tom Thumb theatre is among the world’s very smallest (with only 45 seats), meanwhile Tracey Emin, 63, has returned permanently to her home town, converting a number of buildings into artist studios, a school and her own place to live.
Coastline
‘It’s where JMW Turner painted most of his famous paintings – he went there because he said that the skies were the finest in Europe,’ points out Sir Sam Mendes, 60, who actually reworked the script for his film Empire Of Light after being inspired by a visit to Margate.
‘I was drawn to this particular place because it offered so much opportunity in the scale of the visual landscape,’ he explained. Margate’s golden sands of Margate Main Sands stretch approximately 200 metres, with a promenade and boardwalks. The town is also thought to be the only one in England with two purpose-built 1930s tidal pools. Walpole Bay Tidal Pool is the UK’s largest, while a second pool sits at Marine Terrace on Margate Main Sands
Olivia Colman, 52, who lived there while making the film, said: ‘There’s a breadth about the place, which gives it poetry and a cinematic scope.’
Cuisine
Margate’s food scene is among the UK’s most exciting. Seafood restaurant Sargasso has great natural wine and sunset views while At Angela’s has fish go from boat to plate in a single day. Pomus serves up small, shareable plates. Family-run Italian Bottega Caruso serves rustic homemade pasta while Madonna says its sister restaurant Cantina Caruso is her ‘favourite Italian restaurant’.
But…
Not everyone sees Margate’s gentrification as a fairytale story. Some locals point out that relocations, especially by Londoners, have pushed property prices up, creating a cultural and economic divide across the town. Beware earning yourself a reputation as a DFL (down from London).