By Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Esson
Long-awaited plans have been submitted to Thanet council to refurbish and extend Margate Winter Gardens.
The venue became one of Kent’s most renowned performance spaces after opening in 1911. It was requisitioned for military use during World War Two, largely destroyed, and rebuilt in 1946.
After hosting a raft of household names such as The Beatles and Laurel and Hardy, the Fort Crescent theatre shut in 2022 when Your Leisure handed its lease back to Thanet District Council (TDC). The firm cited a backlog of repairs and refurbishments it could not undertake.
The council then decided to shutter the venue pending a future operator taking over.
Westwood One Theatre – run by Ramsgate sisters Zahra and Parisa Tarjomani and Pyramid Martial Arts & Just Kids Parties owner Matt Milchard – was chosen as the preferred operator in March 2025. The trio also operates The Granville in Ramsgate.
This week, a planning application for the refurbishment works was made public.
“The application seeks to secure the long-term future of the building through a comprehensive programme of restoration, adaptation, and sensitive extension,” planning documents submitted to TDC said.
“The vision for the refurbishment of Margate Winter Gardens is to bring this landmark building back into active public use.
“The proposals aim to celebrate and preserve its historic character while sensitively integrating modern, sustainable uses.”
Westwood One has a 999-year lease agreement with Thanet council to take on the Fort Crescent building and receives a £4 million grant towards the renovation from Margate’s £22m Town Deal fund. Westwood One will match fund to create an £8m budget.
The formal signing of contracts last month meant the first part of the £4m Regeneration Fund (formerly Town Deal) grant would be released.
This will be for the amount of £400,000 to fund key preparatory work (consultant fees, initial planning, surveys, demolition). A further £200,000 is due to be released on submission of the planning and listed building applications to fund detailed RIBA 4 technical design, building control, procurement, preliminaries and start on site.
Under the plans, the venue would receive four additional bars, a 100-place drama school, a 100-place nursery, a rooftop bar and café, a further education and vocational learning centre, while retaining its two main concert and performance halls.
The application also proposes demolishing and replacing the existing two-storey extension to the concert hall, “taking cues from the original 1911 facade”.
The nursery would be created in symmetrical extensions on either side of the building, with grounds at the Winter Gardens used as an outdoor play space.
The nursery would provide a “self-contained and secure environment, with clearly defined access points and controlled entry”, the plans said.
A small new office for Westwood One staff would also be built on the lower promenade.
TDC has previously said work could begin as early as this summer. The aim is to open the Main Hall by early 2027 with other areas following in phases.
It is not yet known when the council’s planning committee will decide on the application, although a target deadline of 7 August has been set.
Granville Theatre
A special screening of a film charting the journey behind the Granville Theatre’s transformation will be held at the Ramsgate venue this month.
The exclusive screening reveals never-before-seen footage from the team’s renovation diaries; capturing every moment from bold first ideas to the gala opening night.
Anyone who buys a ticket to the documentary screening will receive 24 hours early access to buy tickets for the first show going on sale at Margate Winter Gardens before they are released to the public.
The Show Must Go On will be screened from 7.30pm on May 29.
Tickets and details at: https://www.thegranvilletheatre.com/whatson/the-granville-theatre-documentary
Sounds good, but why on earth did they need a 999-year lease agreement with TDC???
Enables them to raise more money using the long lease as security
The Winter Gardens is on publicly owned land in the trust of TDC. The 999 year lease means that although TDC will not be responsible for the running of the venue nor for maintenance of the building etc., they will remain in control of the land and it’s future use.
The land is unlikely to even be there in 999 years.
Watch the Reform idiots get hold of this, they’ll scupper the plan and claim they’ve saved the council spending.
I’m still hoping they’ll scupper the Turner’s endless funding.
Let’s hope the Tracey Emin administration can also submit a planning application to renovate the Loggia/cafe at Westbrook Bay they acquired soon. This bay desperately needs it for locals, families and visitors alike.
They’re already working on it, but with Emin owning it I don’t have much hope of it returning to a rough and ready cafe, and place that sells buckets and spades.
Oh ye of little faith. I know that Tracey Emin will want it to be a place for everyone, not just the well-heeled because that’s the way she is.
The pub she bought in Dumpton so that her brother could live in it is not exactly “a place for everyone”…
Why should it be?
WHAT ABOUT DREAMLAND CINEMA-? NO THAT DOES NOT COUNT DOES IT.
Unfortunately Dreamland is privately owned and the current owners, Live Nation are not the least bit interested in reopening the cinema nor for that matter the Scenic Railway. All they are interested in is the revenue generated by Dreamland as a music venue.