Coast Projects Ltd

Coast Projects Ltd Design | Build | Manage

04/09/2026

Cliftonville, the posh bit of Margate? Not quite. It’s a name property developers invented in the 1800s to make one side of town sound smarter than the other. Margate was seen as a bit common, so they dreamed up Cliftonville on one end and Westonville on the other, two posh bookends around a “dirty, cheap” market in the middle.

Fast forward through decades of ups and downs, and here we are again, people telling you Cliftonville is the nice bit and market is downmarket. Same trick, different century.

It’s not about one side being better than the other. It’s property marketing dressed up as local history.

📍 Margate, Kent

02/09/2026

By the 1970s, Margate had filled one of its own outdoor pools with sand and renamed it Lido Sands, trying to sell a beach where a pool used to be.

Part 4 of our walk with local historian Dan Thompson, and this one gets to the heart of why Margate looks the way it does. James joined Dan to talk through the decades after the war, when the town’s infrastructure struggled to find a new purpose and people went elsewhere. Not just Benidorm, but Bournemouth, Eastbourne, anywhere that had invested in itself while Margate hadn’t.

Here’s the bit that changes how we see it. That same neglect is why so many houses here still have their original Georgian front doors, shutters and fireplaces. Towns that bounced back faster ripped all of that out for uPVC. Margate being written off for two or three decades is the reason those details are still standing, and it’s part of what draws us to the buildings we work on.

Dan also pointed out the 1920s obsession with Egyptian and Indian design in the town’s pagodas and towers, plus a story about a chimney fire that sent flames straight through a building and out the top.

Would you rather take on a house with all its original features, or one that’s already been modernised?

24/08/2026

We won’t speak about what was on that piece of rubbish James picked up...

Part 2 of our second walking tour with Dan Thompson coming soon.

Make sure you’re following along for part 2

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64 High Street
Broadstairs
CT101JT

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Thursday 7am - 5pm
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