Marvellous Margate

It's hard to know whether Margate's town planners have been lethargic or insightful. Whatever the reasons, this town has retained its Edwardian charm - and although some dubious architecture has been allowed in the town's residential outskirts - there is remarkably little "modernisation" in the town itself.

Margate is becoming expert in recycling: a redundant 19th Century church is now the Margate Mosque - preserving the town's heritage and providing a much needed place of worship for Muslims. And no one minds - there is no amplified call to prayer, no out-of-character dome as has happened in so many English towns - here, everyone agreed on a working compromise that meets everyone's core needs, and doesn't create any form of separatism, overt of covert. The conversion and use is an excellent example of how integration should work - indeed, most people visiting Margate don't even know it has a mosque, despite the large hanging sign beneath the spire.

The High Street has more or less died as a shopping street due in part to the sole significant redevelopment - an undercover shopping area with national chain stores. So the houses have gone back to their original purpose of being single dwellings.

The town is in a state of flux: a traditional shopping street remains full of local small traders still flourishes. But just a few hundred metres away, other districts are rapidly emptying, with retail premises to let or for sale.

The old Midland Bank is closed and being renovated for alternative use.

But it's by no means all doom and gloom. Provided the planners hold their nerve, and don't decide that the town needs to be modernised to attract more people, its charms will come back into fashion.

For Margate is a town of hidden depths. Anyone who has seen films of Thomas Hardy's novels will feel instantly at home here: not because the films were made here but because they were made in places like this: tiny alleys leading to the sea, wonderful stately buildings, a huge natural bay around which four storey Edwardian terraces supervise the tides, a clock tower that one just knows is the meeting place for trysts that are not entirely secret.

Yes, the rollercoaster has fallen into disuse; yes, the actual sea front has been a bit "Southendified" - but only for about 50 metres.

In fact, Margate has what Brighton has lost with its brash attempts to attract the young, hip crowd. It has dignity. What the town needs is very simple: incentives for e.g. web based companies to take over some of the redundant retail premises on the understanding that they don't change the outside. To keep the traffic out of the town centre (which is successfully done) and to encourage cycling and walking. To encourage professional services businesses (not mega-firms of accountants and lawyers, but small firms of designers, graphic artists, etc. who will find the estuary sunlight ideal for their work to take over some of the redundant public houses, some of which are surprisingly large.

The town is pretty much perfect just as it is: there are plenty of glass monuments to planners and 20th Century archtechts in other less enlightened towns. Margate has done very well in retaining its character. Just along the coast, Rochester has successfully mutated into a small historic town centre with modern businesses. With care, Margate can do the same, and retain all of its charms whilst encouraging investment and bringing jobs to the town. And without losing its greatest charm of all - the sense of peace and calm it brings to its visitors.

For foreign visitors, it retains much of the England they will otherwise find only on ageing postcards. Hell, even bank staff smile, say "no problem" and fix things for confused visitors. Now that's a real recommendation.

-----

Margate is about two hours by train out of London from Victoria station. Margate station is in the town centre. Within the town, a car is a liability: everywhere is within a ten minute walk of the station. Climate: summer warm and breezy, winter cold and windy.