Margate\u2019s decline started in the 70s and 80s when cheap-package foreign holidays began tempting tourists away from UK seaside towns. Many of the town\u2019s hotels and businesses closed, historic buildings were abandoned and everything started to look a little dog-eared. <\/p>\n
And yet\u2026 last year, it was crowned Britain\u2019s 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\u2019s most desirable coastal town for relocations. <\/p>\n
So what\u2019s drawing the over 40s?<\/p>\n
![\"margate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f542e415-02e5-4149-b617-3d5ff9c5bd41.jpg\" "\\"Margate")
<\/p>\n
Aspect Drone Services<\/p>\n
Connections and commuter links<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Cost<\/p>\n
A terraced house in Margate will set you back around \u00a3279,125, compared to the wider Kent average of \u00a3366,589, making Margate 24% cheaper than the wider county average. Want a detatched house? In Margate, that\u2019s likely to cost you in the region of \u00a3430,000\u2013\u00a3466,000, compared to a wider Kent average \u00a3654,707, making the town around 30% cheaper. <\/p>\n
Culture<\/p>\n
Where to start? There\u2019s the Turner Contemporary \u2013 a major free-entry art gallery located on the historic sea-front site where the painter JMW Turner used to stay. There\u2019s Dreamland \u2013 a vintage seaside amusement park that\u2019s also free to enter \u2013 and features classic fairground rides, a roller disco, street food and live music concerts. <\/p>\n
The Tom Thumb theatre is among the world\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
Coastline<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s where JMW Turner painted most of his famous paintings \u2013 he went there because he said that the skies were the finest in Europe,\u2019 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. <\/p>\n
\u2018I was drawn to this particular place because it offered so much opportunity in the scale of the visual landscape,\u2019 he explained. Margate\u2019s 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\u2019s largest, while a second pool sits at Marine Terrace on Margate Main Sands<\/p>\n
Olivia Colman<\/a>, 52, who lived there while making the film, said: \u2018There\u2019s a breadth about the place, which gives it poetry and a cinematic scope.\u2019<\/p>\n Cuisine<\/p>\n Margate\u2019s food scene is among the UK\u2019s most exciting. Seafood restaurant Sargasso has great natural wine and sunset views while At Angela\u2019s 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<\/a> says its sister restaurant Cantina Caruso is her \u2018favourite Italian restaurant\u2019.<\/p>\n But…<\/p>\n Not everyone sees Margate\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Whenever I go there, I feel like I\u2019ve entered a dream\u2026 the whole town seems to be inhabited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9262,225203,381,96,190731,1156,128,225202,223205,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-a3b39ee1-9955-43a2-80c7-0e9c7e1daf8e","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-music","tag-shorttitle-5-reasons-why-margates-madonnas-idea-of-heaven","tag-sponsored-false","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}