A project charting Ramsgate conservation area history and architecture has been published by Thanet council.
The Ramsgate Conservation Area Appraisal examines what should be preserved and enhanced in the Ramsgate Conservation Area, as well as proposals for its future management.
The project was funded by Historic England as part of the Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone, and delivered in partnership with the council.
Alan Baxter Ltd produced the final report which uses survey work carried out by community volunteers during a six-week public consultation.
The appraisal sets out the special historic and architectural significance of the conservation area and suggests areas for change.
It also includes a chapter focusing on climate change and looks at how historic buildings can be sensitively adapted to keep pace with the change and also to reduce carbon.
It is one of the first area appraisals to include climate considerations and will serve as a model for other places facing similar issues. It will be used together with other planning policy documents to guide decisions on future development.
The appraisal also sets out a wealth of Ramsgate history focusing on areas including the harbour, Eastcliff, West Cliff and town and looks at how the conservation area can be maintained and improved.
Councillor Reece Pugh, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Thanet District Council said:“The appraisal document records what is special about Ramsgate’s Conservation Area, and will be an important tool in ensuring that the council can make informed plans for its future, protecting Ramsgate’s historical significance, character and appearance.
“The Conservation Area is so important to the future development of Ramsgate, as well as to its history, and I would like to thank everyone who took part in the public consultation.”
The team behind the appraisal has also prepared a bespoke Owners’ Guidance document, for people living and working in the conservation area. The guide explains what the conservation area protections cover and provides practical advice for residents and businesses.
Liz Pollard, Heritage at Risk Projects Officer at Historic England, said: “These documents will be very practical tools for residents, council officers and applicants alike, designed to offer constructive support for building conservation and sustainable urban renewal.
“The Ramsgate appraisal is unique in that it includes a chapter dedicated to climate change mitigation, with advice for adapting buildings for climate change and to reduce carbon emissions. It demonstrates how the adaptive reuse of historic buildings retains embodied carbon.”
For further information about the Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone, and to view the Conservation Area Appraisal documents, please visit the council’s website at: www.thanet.gov.uk/ramsgate-conservation
Consultant needed
Thanet council is currently looking for a skilled consultant to act as the main point of contact and lead facilitator for the Ramsgate Cultural Consortium. The community-led group will plan activities to bring together people from across Ramsgate, to enjoy their high street and have a say in its future, as part of Ramsgate’s High Street Heritage Action Zone project.It is a freelance role equivalent to three days a month until the end of March 2024.
Full information is available on the Kent Business Portal and the closing date for applications is Friday 22 April.
its all very well showing some of the slightly better bits , why dont they show the boarded up shops and derelict town ?????? – and the world dont revolve around that scruffy old harbour , i doubt very much if locals own many boats
Looking at those pics reminds me how much better Ramsgate’s best bits are in comparison to Margate’s best bits. I must visit more often (if only the train station was still on the seafront!).
Peter, you would have to be much older than the Queen to remember Ramsgate Sands or Harbour Station as it closed in 1926,the year of the Queens birth and the General strike.Unless you are dead,and are emailing from the afterlife (please tell us what to expect),not even you could remember it. The current Ramsgate station is a fine piece of Neo Georgian architecture designed jointly by JR Scott and Maxwell Fry, two fine architects, who went on to do design further great buildings.
As for the conservation area, TDC do not need to appoint anyone.The Town Council could do the job with a lot more sympathetic treatment than TDC have given the town in the last 50 years.
You will note there are modern street lamps where there should be conservation grade lighting. It happened because KCC and TDC wanted to save money and felt Ramsgate was less worthy that either West Kent or Margate.
When they were asked how this tallied in with the Heritage action zone, their excuse was the old concrete lamps had been used in the past and so we should be grateful they replaced them with new modern designs.
I don’t believe for a minute that TDC care anything for Ramsgate or its conservation areas, and this study only embarasses them into the most minimal of gestures.
Where did I say I remember it?
Ramsgate station is more St. Lawrence than Ramsgate. I live in Birchington, and it is actually quicker for me to get to Faversham town centre than it is to Ramsgate seafront when using public transport!
I think you are right about how much TDC care about conservation and sympathetic development of windfall sites. Dozens of residents and councillors have objected to an overdevelopment in Addington Place yet planning department support the development with no parking for 5 houses and not one recharging point! Resident comments are not shown on the TDC planing site as promised suggesting secretive moves.
Undoubtably Westwood X has killed trade in Ramsgate . It is called progress. Sadly no thought at all was given to the damage caused by Westwood X. Visitors to Ramsgate come to see our seafront and town. Great architecture in town is no use to anyone if all the shops are boarded up with only expensive parking and wardens on the prowl. It makes it an unwelcoming , unfriendly place to go. A radicle plan is needed to save our town now before it is to late !
Ditto Margate, though strangely Broadstairs hasn’t suffered too much, perhaps because it didn’t have many big chains in the first place.
Such as closing down Westwood Cross, but I don’t suppose that’s possible.
Ramsgate town centre was on the down turn way before Westwood Cross.
The day they took the road out it started to go downwards!
There is so much more history hidden and never spoke about, all they cared about was opening a “Tunnel”.. well there is plenty of more interesting tunnels and a far richer history right above those tunnels.
Oh and St Lawrence had a train station situated on Newington Road bridge with Ramsgate terminal at the end of Station Approach!
As Station Approach is Ramsgate then it’s very much Ramsgate station!
Yes, no, I’m aware of that.
Everything tdc sells including toilets next.. To southern water.
Thanet.. Ramsgate has lots of wealth the harbour is full and berthing fees are not cheap nor is the hobby.
Buildings left to rot then sold as a peppercorn rent is TDC remitt. Over the years each council has had funds. The museum ruined the pavilion
Customs House ruined
Ask your town clerk he could do the job.. Peter you need a stature of your satire lol
He ?
Help and realistic planning to change closed and derelict shops / businesses to residential premises to shrink the town and enable the few remaining viable shops to trade would be a start. TDC needs to give help and encourage traders and shoppers back to using the town/ towns. Dithering and doing nowt now will make any regeneration an impossible dream