16 July 21, 2019The Sunday Times
Travel 40 Best British Beaches
GIVE ME MARGATE
OVER THE MED
ANY DAY
I
went to Margate with
the family at the start
of June. It was that
Champions League final
weekend, as hot as the
Med, and after a day of sun,
the beach was baking and
packed. Cans of lager were
cooking on the sand, men in
tight swimwear strutted their
bulges into just-warm-enough
sea and children collected
unimpressive shells and
handed them to their parents
to keep in their pockets.
Oh, Britain, by the seaside in
the sun — it was a wonderful
weekend.
And the best thing about
Margate? It is 90 minutes from
where my wife and I live in east
London, with our children,
Ezra, 4, and Eden, 2. Pop them
on the plane to a beach in
Spain and it’d be an hour to the
airport, 90 minutes in security
and departures, two hours
on the plane, half an hour in
the Spanish airport, an hour’s
drive to the hotel — easily half
a day before tiny toes could
touch the water. Go to our own
shores, though, and it’s sea
breeze and ice cream while
families flying abroad are still
stuck in post-customs Boots,
arguing about suncream.
Margate, of course, has
enjoyed something of a
revolution of late, turning a
seaside town well past its
prime into Shoreditch-on-Sea.The east London influence is
there, in shops that sell one
book about 1970s Dutch art a
week. But that stuff, the stuff
we can get at home, barely
figured in our weekend.
All the activities the four of us
enjoyed could have been in any
of the traditional UK resorts,It’s not fancy, but this Kent town has the best
of the British seaside, says Jonathan Dean
est
31-