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Bank holiday at Margate
Aug. 31st, 2018 08:39 amHarriet to Peter in Dorothy Sayers's "Gaudy Night," discussing where to go punting:
"There'll be an awful crowd on the river. The Cherwell's not what is was, especially on a Sunday. More like Bank Holiday at Margate, with gramophones and bathing-dresses and everybody barging into everybody else."
I read GN in 1978, I think, and ever since then, this has been my go-to phrase for a crowded vacation spot in the UK (like 4th of July at Myrtle Beach, I guess).
When I realized that we would be in the UK over the late August bank holiday weekend, I eventually switched my Saturday outing plan from doing more of the South Downs Way to walking along the coast from Margate to Ramsgate.
It didn't quite work out that way. I like to do parkruns when I am near one on any given Saturday (there is one in Jamaica Plain, but I have a tai chi class at 9 on Saturday mornings, so I almost never get to one). After a lot of waffling, we decided that the best thing to do would be the one near Putney Bridge along the Thames, and then take the train to Margate, which should make it possible for us to be far enough in our coast walk to hit Botany Bay (the British one) at low tide.
https://www.visitkent.co.uk/botany-bay/
Early on in the run, I started having pain proximal to the medial ankle on my right side. I tried to ignore it (running through pain isn't sensible, but I'm not generally someone who learns from her mistakes). By the time we got to Margate a couple of hours later after a train ride, it became clear that walking nine miles was not going to happen. I bought a stretchy ankle brace and carried on. Margate beach was well-populated, the museums had lots of traffic, kids were bouncing in the bouncy things, etc. Still, not as densely packed as it might be. I rode the largest elevator I've ever seen at the Turner Contemporary museum (no art by Turner was on display. There were some really large installations, hence the elevator size, I guess). Added to the list of oddities we have seen, we went briefly to the Shell Grotto.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/04/the-margate-shell-grotto-in-kent-england-is-an-ornate-subterranean-passageway-covered-in-mosaics-made-of-4-6-million-shells/
A few minutes was enough for us, but we admit that it is not like anything else.
Artificially strengthened by the brace, we walked about three miles to Botany Bay. Waded. took photos, admired the very nice sand. Then we decided to quit while ahead, and took a cab back to the Margate train station instead of walking farther.
Something else that happens that weekend every year is the Notting Hill Carnival, a celebration of Caribbean culture. https://www.thelondonnottinghillcarnival.com/
We had commitments for most of the day, so we only went during the set-up time. We were startled to see that almost all the shops were boarded up, against the potential crush of a million revelers. In the few hours overnight, all of them were covered with spray paint tags.
We heard a very small amount of music, didn't see any parades, and left wistfully unfed by the two vegan food places we found among the acres of jerk chicken and so forth (nobody was selling food yet at 8 AM, when we were there, but the booths were up and getting organized).
"There'll be an awful crowd on the river. The Cherwell's not what is was, especially on a Sunday. More like Bank Holiday at Margate, with gramophones and bathing-dresses and everybody barging into everybody else."
I read GN in 1978, I think, and ever since then, this has been my go-to phrase for a crowded vacation spot in the UK (like 4th of July at Myrtle Beach, I guess).
When I realized that we would be in the UK over the late August bank holiday weekend, I eventually switched my Saturday outing plan from doing more of the South Downs Way to walking along the coast from Margate to Ramsgate.
It didn't quite work out that way. I like to do parkruns when I am near one on any given Saturday (there is one in Jamaica Plain, but I have a tai chi class at 9 on Saturday mornings, so I almost never get to one). After a lot of waffling, we decided that the best thing to do would be the one near Putney Bridge along the Thames, and then take the train to Margate, which should make it possible for us to be far enough in our coast walk to hit Botany Bay (the British one) at low tide.
https://www.visitkent.co.uk/botany-bay/
Early on in the run, I started having pain proximal to the medial ankle on my right side. I tried to ignore it (running through pain isn't sensible, but I'm not generally someone who learns from her mistakes). By the time we got to Margate a couple of hours later after a train ride, it became clear that walking nine miles was not going to happen. I bought a stretchy ankle brace and carried on. Margate beach was well-populated, the museums had lots of traffic, kids were bouncing in the bouncy things, etc. Still, not as densely packed as it might be. I rode the largest elevator I've ever seen at the Turner Contemporary museum (no art by Turner was on display. There were some really large installations, hence the elevator size, I guess). Added to the list of oddities we have seen, we went briefly to the Shell Grotto.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/04/the-margate-shell-grotto-in-kent-england-is-an-ornate-subterranean-passageway-covered-in-mosaics-made-of-4-6-million-shells/
A few minutes was enough for us, but we admit that it is not like anything else.
Artificially strengthened by the brace, we walked about three miles to Botany Bay. Waded. took photos, admired the very nice sand. Then we decided to quit while ahead, and took a cab back to the Margate train station instead of walking farther.
Something else that happens that weekend every year is the Notting Hill Carnival, a celebration of Caribbean culture. https://www.thelondonnottinghillcarnival.com/
We had commitments for most of the day, so we only went during the set-up time. We were startled to see that almost all the shops were boarded up, against the potential crush of a million revelers. In the few hours overnight, all of them were covered with spray paint tags.
We heard a very small amount of music, didn't see any parades, and left wistfully unfed by the two vegan food places we found among the acres of jerk chicken and so forth (nobody was selling food yet at 8 AM, when we were there, but the booths were up and getting organized).
