Margate is a medium sized coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in north east Kent. A traditional holiday destination for Londoners owing to its sandy beaches, in recent times it has had higher unemployment rates than much of South east England, as tourists travel further afield. It is bordered by Broadstairs and Westgate. Like Brighton it was infamous for gang violence between Mods and Rockers in the 1960s.

Margate is a pleasant resort facing major structural redevelopments, its well known Dreamland Amusement Park (featured in the equally famous film of the 'Only fools and horses' TV Series) is threatened with imminant closure, and in 2003 saw a major fire destroy much of its seafront building frontage. This fire convieniently occoured during plans to close the park, owned by the same company that has similar redevelopment plans for the Folkestone Rotunda Amusement Park.

With the UK's oldest wooden roller coaster, (a listed structure?) Dreamland, has some need for protection, its Big Wheel, once a landmark visable for miles around has been sold to a park in Mexico.

A controversial Turner gallery has been proposed, as some kind of alternative for the tourist trade at Margate, and if built would form part of the Harbour itself. (details when available). Regrettably the danger of placing so much of Britain's national art treasure on an extension to Margate Harbour, which is subject to heavy weather conditions, and exposed to the full fury of the North Sea, has not occurred to the designers, and would in all probability have Turner spinning in his grave.

The town's history is closely tied to the sea and it boasts a proud maritime tradition. The record of the vessel, Friend to all Nations, and the Margate Surfboat disaster of 1897 are noteworthy events in Margate's past.

In about 1816 ‘The Times’ reported that the introduction of steamboats has given the whole coast of Kent (and) the Isle of Thanet in particular, a prodigious lift’. Sir Rowland Hill (founder of the 1840 Penny Post), whilst in Thanet during 1815 however, remarked; ‘It is surprising to see how most people are prejudiced against this packet’.

In 1820 it was said that “the inhabitants of Margate ought to eulogize the name of Watt, as the founder of their good fortune; and Steam vessels as the harbingers of their prosperity” It is curious however to find that a popular reluctance was to be found apparent in passengers in traveling beyond Margate, for fear of coming to grief upon the dangerous North Foreland shoreline.

So popular were the steam boat excursions that in 1841 there were six different companies competing for the Margate passenger traffic. It remains a remarkable tribute to the popularity of this pioneering service that even with the advent of the South Eastern Railway in 1846 the steamboats continued in service until their final demise in 1967.