The Dane Valley Arms (DVA) is currently on fire and Thanet fire crews are attempting to bring the blaze under control. However, it looks likely that the building will be completely destroyed, such is the ferocity of the conflagration.
The DVA has always been a local anomaly, one of the biggest pubs in the area, built fifty years before the houses on the estate behind it. For decades it stood on its own, surrounded by fields.
Built in 1929, local rumour has it that it was built because the railway company were planning to build a station in Dane Valley and it was going to be a Station Hotel, but the plans never came to fruition. Given that this was just a decade after the Scenic Railway was built, and at a time when Margate was in its heyday, this theory makes sense.
I'll update the thread tomorrow.