Extending from Ellington Park down to the seafront (although with different names along its length The High Street provided direct access from St Lawrence to the harbour.
Many shops have gone from the high street over the years however in its heyday it was a thriving shopping area with much of the life of Ramsgate going on in the Town. Centralisation has taken out much of the administration losing its Court, Police Station, Town Hall and much employment from the town to Margate and Canterbury.
Here are some pictures of what has been lost.
These are all pictures of the original Town Hall built over an open market junction of Queen, King, Harbour and High Street. It was removed to widen Queen Street and became Burtons and is now a Building society.
The Eagle Inn
Picture house known as the "flea pit"
George Sanger built Sanger’s Amphitheatre on this site in 1883. The
architect was the borough surveyor, Albert Latham. It was a circus
building but used also from its early years for opera and drama. In
1908 Frank Matcham carried out a major conversion to a theatre, known
thereafter as the Royal Palace. Films were shown and in 1929 it was
equipped for talking pictures, but it continued to be used for variety
and stage plays until about 1950. It was demolished together with
Sanger’s Hotel, adjoining, in 1960 and a supermarket was built on the
site.
The original building was busily detailed in brick and stone, in three
bays with a somewhat disconcerting change of storey and ridge levels
between the two outer bays. Above the ornate, arched central entrance a
tower rose high above the parapet, crowned by a lively, over-life-size
equestrian figure of a rearing horse and rider. The front was guarded
by eight draped female figures (said to be bronze) standing on pedestals
and holding aloft elaborately ornamented gas lamps. Their number was
later reduced (apparently due to prudish reaction) when six were removed
to Sanger’s Hall by the Sea in Margate.
So far as can be judged by the single picture of the auditorium so far
seen, Matcham’s remodelling was not untypical of his later work, with
bulging boxes set in an arched frame. The two balconies were supported
on widely spaced iron columns (perhaps an adaptation of the original
tiering?).
The striking exterior may have been architecturally somewhat coarse (not
entirely inappropriate to its original use) but it is a pity that
Ramsgate should have been so indifferent to the fate of its one major
theatre. Perhaps the Granville (q.v.) was thought to point the way to
the future.
(link to article)
No. 1 High Street
Now Argos formerly Sanger's Amphitheatre
Bomb damage
County Library now Lloyds Bank
National Provincial Bank
