Joyland Books

Not sure though if the ripping out of the shop interior may make this listing rather dodgy, but another bit of Margate which hopefully won't be too badly ruined by the developer, and it all adds to the attractiveness and importance of the history of the town:

http://margatearchitecture.blogspot.com ... rrace.html

This is one of the most striking buildings in Margate and it's been a shame to watch it decay over the last ten or so years. Hopefully something will be done with it which retains as much of the fabric of the building as possible.

Awful that the shop interior has been ripped out - possibly to try to prevent listing?

Another case of poor vision. Properly restored, could make wonderful cafes and such, at least on the first floors.
The corner building would make a STUNNING hotel.
The pharmacy/chemist would have made an ideal coffee and sweets shop.
You can't replicate that kind of warmth and charm.
How do they EVER hope to bring people back as tourists if they let this go on?

Well - it seems it's now a Listed Building - probably Grade II - and that will mean hopefully that some sensitive re-use, rather than ripping anything else of interest out, will happen. Listed Building Consent will have to be sought for any changes from now on. That may put off the developer...if it does and it goes up for sale, please can someone in the area post?


I am surprised it was listed, but pleased.

Thanks everyone who is pleased to see that 14&15 Cliff Terrace Margate are now listed. The Chemist shop at 12 unfortunately didn't make it through thanks to someone at the council talking. But the lovely corner site is now grade II listed.

Yours

MA

Well, it possibly wasn't the fault of the council totally - EH will have notified the site owner of a visit in advance.

What is required is interim protection (which should be coming but not soon enough...) so that once a building or structure has had a listing request, there is legal protection from damage and demolition, which is currently not the case. Listing can take a very long time indeed, and so there is plenty of scope for damage in the meanwhile.

Cyclone is a prime example!

EAS - EH didn't notify the owner as they were aware that the shop may be removed, which is in fact what happened. They had decided to make an external inspection only. This is outlined in their report. There were conflicting depts at the council: the empty properties dept that had lined up the developer: Jim Ward of Ramsgate FC and the conservation team. The listing was applied for by an individual, not the council. I was the individual. The conservation team were not able to apply for the listing for let's say, political reasons.

Most applications for spotlisting come from individuals and conservation organisations I would say, and not local authorities.

But it's interesting that an external inspection only was made, as this is against what EH normally does, and interesting also that at last it's getting through that notification often means destruction. We have been shouting about this for some time!

If you have proof that a govenment/local authority funded agency notified the owners in advance than I suggest that information is passed on to the DCMS.

It all helps.

EAS - I don't have proof. That would be really difficult to prove. I'm sure they would say it got removed because of the scheme they were proposing and were within their rights to do it.

Oh well. Thanks for the advice.

MA

Yes, they were within their rights until the moment the building is listed, sadly.

Glad that EH is recognising this, we have made a fuss but it's still not enshrined in law so heaven knows how many other buildings may be damaged in the interim

Well, it's a shame, but at least the building's going to survive and hopefully be restored. It's certainly lovely.
Hopefully the first floor will be some sort of cafe or coffee shop that the public can enjoy.

A year and a week after the original post and it's time for a quick update. It's not quite finished yet.

Before






After











About as sympathetic a restoration as we could have hoped for I suppose. At least the building hasn't been lost. From the look of it, the ground floor will be used as an office.

Two-bedroom apartments are being advertised at £99,995 which is about £50,000 down from what would have been asked a year ago.

Hiya,

Well, I'm pleased the first floor and above windows have been saved on the corner building. I'm depressed and saddened at the carving up of the interior. Have you seen the size of the flats? The ground floor corner flat has such amazingly small rooms directly onto the street. The loss of the commercial space and the interior of the original shop fittings is a loss. I don't think Cliftonville needs another 10 tiny flats in a hurry and not from such a striking building.

At least we got it listed, which saved the windows and it from being demolished.

Margate Architecture wrote:At least we got it listed.

That is the most important thing with any interesting building in Margate.