The overhaul of public toilets at Margate’s Marine Drive will include the building of two blocks at promenade level to provide disabled toilets and baby changing facilities
Thanet council is spending £400k for the new build accessible toilets at Margate Main Sands and is also carrying out a refurb of the underground toilets to include upgrading the interior finishes, plumbing, ventilation and lighting.
The entry areas will remain as they are, but signage and lighting will be improved for better visibility and safety.
The subterranean toilets will also feature ambulant disabled toilets designed for individuals who have limited mobility but do not require wheelchair access. These will include grab rails, raised toilet seats, and appropriate signage.
The two promenade level toilet blocks toilets will include Wheelchair-accessible toilets, designed with wide doorways, level thresholds, grab rails, and appropriate interior layout for maximum accessibility and baby changing facilities in each block, offering fold-down tables, hygienic bins, and adequate space for caregivers.
Planning documents say the design for the blocks has been inspired by Turner Contemporary and will “echo its modernist and angular forms.”
The document adds: “The design prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity, ensuring all facilities are accessible to visitors with different needs.
“The promenade-level toilets ensure that visitors do not need to navigate steps or ramps to access the toilets.
“Features such as wide doorways, grab rails, and clear signage in both the subterranean and promenade-level toilets ensure accessibility for all users, including those with disabilities and families with small children.”
It is anticipated that works will start this year and the new toilets are expected to open ahead of the summer season in 2026.
In a heritage statement for the project by planning consultant John Elvidge it says the underground toilets were created at the time of, or soon after, the original construction of Marine Drive circa 1880.
The railings which separated the new road from the beach also enclosed the steps leading down to the toilets.
A postcard from the early 1900’s shows handrails situated either side of the steps leading down to the toilets on the northern side of the slipways access.
The railings along Marine Drive were later replaced by a concrete, sea-defence wall, with single metal railing above.
In 1986 refurbishment of the toilets took place, at a cost of £117,700.
The toilets at Marine Drive have been closed since 2019 after a pre-season inspection found them to be unsafe for public use due to structural issues.
The toilets flooded following a major leak which also damaged the ceiling and tiles. Damage was also discovered in the ladies’ toilet. Incoming water meant the electrics were condemned.
The closure prompted a public protest outside the council offices.
That’ll bring down the Turner visitor numbers!
This is good news but will they be open all year round?
So 400k for the new build toilets at street level , and a figure for a 1980’s refurb but no mention of the cost to sort out the undeground bogs?
Quite right Peter, the fake visitor numbers will need massaging in another manner once the new toilets are in place.
“Recent Convert”- could you please explain why you think the visitor numbers for the Turner gallery are fake? (I.e. where did you find the information which proves that they were?) Thank you.
They were based on sensors that counted the number of people crossing the threshold. So anyone going back and forth, members of staff, people just going in to use the toilets all counted.
Then if you looked at the purported numbers that used to be publicised it was utter tosh.
Also no way of knowing who were visitors to the area as against locals with nothing much to do and walked in frequently for no real purpose.
All of which undermines the notion that the place attracts huge numbers to the area.
Just as what’s the point of a 2nd name change, the cost of new website, promotional material, stationary etc etc.
And last but not least the huge sums spent upgrading mere decade old lights and electrics.
Could you please give me a link to where you read these statistics? Thank you.
Also, could you explain to me why locals would go to the gallery “for no real purpose”? What do you think they would do there once they’d entered the building? Thanks again.
All a mixture of what’s been published online over the years and knowing some of the contractors that have worked on the building. Then throw in a bit of common sense when you look at some of the earlier visitor numbers that were publicised. ( ie, how many visitors a week, likely split over the week , think of how many might have come by train and how many by road, make a sensible estimate of how many occupants each vehicle had then wonder how on earth mrgate wouldmhave copedmwith so many visiting vehicles., or why great masses of people walking from the station went unnoticed).
Plenty of aimless wandering locals in thanet , with plenty of time to kill. Popping into the Turner multiple times in a week will not be that uncommon.
Could you please give me a link to some facts? Thank you.
Are the “aimless wandering locals” not visitors? I live in Thanet- when I visit a local gallery, do I count as a visitor?
If you go into the cafe to get some drinks to take outside, and then go in to use the toilet, and then take your tray back in – you count as a visitor 3 times without even seeing any art!
You’d be a visitor , but not in terms of someone new being attracted to the area and bringing ecoonomic value with you.
Do a few searches “turner centre/contemporary” visitor numbers and see if you think they are believable.
Take this article
https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2017/04/14/turner-contemporary-celebrates-its-sixth-birthday-this-weekend/
The figure for 2016/17 gives an average visitor count of a convenient 1052 a day, each and every day of the year.
The overall numbers from the day it opened is given as 2.3 million and amazingly this comes out at 1052 a day.
Far too convenient. Then we have the high and low season and new exhibitions so not unreasonable to split those numbers and have 5000 on a good day, does any reasonable person believe those numbers?
Of the visitors we really should be establishing how many have come from out of the area to visit the centre. So the evenings where there are yoga classes, recitals, or the days for the children activities whilst arts related are functions that could very easily have been undertaken in a community hall/centre and are in reality used to boost income and viisitor numbers to the building as a whole.
The actual pure exhibition visitor numbers will be much lower ( i’ve been about half a dozen times, including the embarassment of the year the turner entrants were shown, it was like looking at a primary schools art class, and in the end they decided to share the turner prize, probably as they’d be too ashamed to collect the prize as an individual)
I’d guess that if numbers going through the doors of wetherspoons were measured in the same way they wouldn’t be far behind and in the case of Ramsgate almost certainly much higher, but do we celebrate the success of the “Tim centre”
Lies , damm lies and statistics
“Recent Convert”-I don’t care anyway. I like the Turner.
“Mike Bassett”
I like lots of things. But I don’t like being lied to. Do you?
So do a lot of people , but that doesn’t mean the we’ve not been misled and deceived. And it becomes a slippery slope, if you’re allowed to accept your deception of choice can everyone have there’s and have the country run on that basis?
A country full of accepting mindless sheep is never going to prosper.
Who asked you, Peter Checksfield? Aren’t I lucky- I won’t be commenting here any more, soon! You’ll have to pick on another woman.
If that’s the best reply you can come up with to a highly plausible explanation, one suspects you won’t be missed.
Bye-bye, P.
Checksfield. I’ve read your comments and I have a very low opinion of them, and of you.
Ditto, young man.
I am a woman. “Mike Bassett” is only a pseudonym.