Saturday, September 9th 2012
Temporary post ? will be replaced.
This was the last day of our September staycation and so we wanted to make it a good one. As we both like the seaside, that?s where we headed today.
We walked down to St Pancras station and had breakfast at the Camden Food Co cafe there, then went up to the HS1 platforms to take a train to Ashford where we would change for Ramsgate.
Ramsgate is a small but picturesque seaside town in Kent. It was declared a Royal Port by King George IV and has proudly borne the title ever since. The small ships of Ramsgate were among those who played such an important part in evacuating Allied troops from the Normandy beaches after the unsuccessful Dunkirk landing in the Second World War.
Ramsgate Harbour and Marina
Ramsgate also has a ferry port serving various European destinations, carrying both passengers and freight.
We had two visits lined up. The first was to the Grange, the house that famous architect Augustus Pugin built for himself in Ramsgate. Like Rennie Mackintosh, Pugin designed interiors and furniture as well as the outside appearance of buildings. He was in love with the Gothic Revival style that flowered during the Victorian era. Bizarrely, he considered this to be a ?Christian? style as opposed to the Classical style favoured by other architects which he considered ?pagan?. Pugin embraced the English Catholic faith and expressed his religious sentiments in his church designs. His house, as one might expect, is a showcase of the Gothic Revival form while the private chapel included within it expresses his religious faith.
Our second visit (having first lunched in a Chinese restaurant called Harmony) was to the Church of St George the Martyr. I should also mention that Ramsgate was celebrating an Open House Event and that these two places were among those welcoming the public to visit. The church first opened for business in October 1827 when Ramsgate?s increasing population outgrew the existing Church of St Lawrence. Its tall belfry (136 feet high) contains unusual tubular bells as it is not strong enough to support a traditional peal of bells. It is quite an impressive structure.
As well as visiting these two buildings we also renewed our acquaintance with the town and, later, sat for a while on the beach. Returning to the station, we just missed a train to St Pancras so took a Charing Cross train and changed at Ashford to an HS1 (now referred to as the Javelin) to St Pancras.
This ends what was a full and active week of visits and explorations. The weather was kind to us ? too kind, perhaps, as sometimes it was hotter than was comfortable ? and we were able to carry out our programme of visits without let or hindrance.
I still have the posts for our Glasgow trip to write up and have, in addition, now accumulated those for our staycation. I have no idea when I will finish writing them up. It will take some time?!
Copyright ? 2012 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.
Source: http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/september-staycation-2012-last-day/
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