Margate Coastal Park
Introduction
Archival research
Historic maps
Analytical maps
Organisations
Shelters
studies & reports
Engagement
Historic Maps
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This section comprises a series of overlaid historic maps of the coastal area of Margate. The area shown is limited to that which developed in response to the presence of the Coastal Park, itself delineated by a black line.
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The choice of what area to include in these maps is in flux, and is subject to further scrutiny and involvement of stakeholders. There is an argument that the ‘coastal’ area of Margate could be limited to the strong vehicular route defined by Hawley Street / Northdown Road, with largely ‘coastal’ area to the north/west and ‘inland’ areas to the south/east, but we felt this would exclude too much of the areas around the ‘inland’ parks of Dane Park and Northdown Park, which were made public around the same time as the Coastal Park, and therefore relevant to its presence. Therefore the areas to the north/west of these two large ‘inland’ parks are also included. On the westward side we also included the area to the north of the railway line, and enough of the context around the station to make sense of the urban grain.
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How to define the boundaries of the Coastal Park itself is also complex. If taken forward as a designated Park & Garden, the area defined by this boundary will receive increased scrutiny of decision making.
Broadly speaking, the area stretches from the point of arrival for the majority of visitors - the Railway Station and/or Arlington House Car Park in the west - to Botany Bay in the east.
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We currently define the boundary as follows:
North - The mean low tide line; defining the extent of the area people can explore on foot. The fact that this boundary is temporal, based on the ebb and flow of the tide is significant.
East - Approximately the boundary of the historic borough of Margate. This boundary can be seen to have moved regularly over the past century, as many of the maps shows a slightly different position. We have chosen to fix the boundary for the purposes of this stage of the project not according to this political line, but to where the geography of Botany Bay meets Kingsgate Bay (Broadstairs), which also aligns with the current extent of the urban growth of the town.
South - The building facades fronting the park, following the predominant urban limits, which broadly date - from west to east - from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
West - The prominent ‘book-end’ of the Nayland Rock Hotel that terminates the western vista from Margate Main Sands. This boundary does not accord to a political ward boundary, the line is based instead of the apparent architectural/urban end of this stretch of coast. Beyond this point to the west is arguably part of the town and growth of Westgate, which could be the subject of a separate or extended study.
The maps are shown in forwards and reverse chronological loop to show change over time and include:
Current Aerial View, pieced together from Google Maps believed to be circa 2013, followed by those available online through Digimaps from: 2013, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1900s, 1890s, 1870s, 1852, 1821. Some are of low quality, such as the 1960s, 70s and 80s, but this is the maximum quality available using the Digimaps service.
The maps are all presented in alignment on each page, to the same scale, with north upwards. The convention of orienting to the north appears to have settled locally by the early/mid C19th, though it was the predominant form in Europe as early as the C16th.
We have produced this map sequence in different formats to allow different kinds of user interaction:
We have produced this map sequence in different formats to allow different kinds of user interaction:
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1)A Gif which fades through the sequence in pre-determined order, shown above;
2)A PDF sequence in the document that can be downloaded by clicking the cloud icon above
3)An exhibition of the maps in physical form planned for late Summer 2016 in the Palm Bay Shelter.
4)A layered Photoshop file which can be used in a number of ways, including the ability to zoom in close on any particular site and click on/off through layers of time to see historic change. This document is large (900 meg) and can be downloaded by following this link: HERE. Note that you will need Adobe Photoshop to open and view layers in the file.
The whole section can be downloaded by clicking on the cloud icon below.
