retiredmartin

Our campervan wasn’t nicked or covered in pro-micropub graffiti when we returned to Ramsgate, so I’ve no doubt we’ll be back regularly at our free spot on the Esplanade during the year. Views like these are rare from our windows in Waterbeach.

On Saturday we did the clifftop walked into town, and Mrs RM was amazed by the transformation in the town, most noticeable down by the harbour with its string of unpretentious eggs benedicts with Time & Tide key keg shacks.

Five years ago I may have coerced her into a pub crawl of Ramsgate’s robust boozers, which are probably more to my taste than hers. Lack of appreciation of the exterior of the Artillery Arms, or the tiling at the Queen’s Head could endanger her #PubMan status.

She was rather more taken with Addington Street, perhaps a bellwether street for the changes in town.  In recent years this fairly nondescript lane seems to have acquired a home furnishings store, a record café, a self-proclaimed “bo-ho bar”, and some topical street art.

It was too early for the pub, so we made do with Scottish Porridge in the Belgian Café, the highlight of our first visit years ago.

As “colourful” as ever, and still with a decent Belgian beer list, it was now fulfilling an important role as a haven for 10am Fosters drinkers.

Later this year they’ll have the option of Fosters or John Smiths at the giant beachfront Spoons taking shape across the road.

Good thing ? Bad thing ? Who can say.  Ramsgate feels on the edge of a boom in tourism, and not one driven by micropub tickers.  Full of record shops, tat and cafes, I can see it attracting the Whitstable-on-the cheap crowd, as well as the campers.

One of the UK’s most cheery places, one to return to again and again.