A Personal Perspective on Broadstairs

About Broadstairs

This page is all about one of our favourite places to relax. Janie and I have lived in the area for over 30 years and have now lived here in Broadstairs since 1998. It is a quiet town on the Kent coast between Margate and Ramsgate on the Isle of Thanet. It is sometimes referred to as the Jewel in Thanet's Crown. It is also known by the translation of the Town crest motto Stella Maris - Star of the Sea. There is quite a lot of history associated with the area, smuggling was prevalent for many years and of course Charles Dickens lived and wrote here.

I have added a Local History page to the site, I am no historian but hope it will encourage anyone interested to do some more research.

This picture (click on it to enlarge) was taken around 10am on 31st May 2001 showing Viking Bay in Broadstairs at its best in the sun, it got somewhat busier later in the day! On the left you can see the tower of the new Beach Lift (opened in 2000) which now gives easy access to Viking Bay for anyone who find stairs difficult for any reason. There is no charge to use the Lift and you get a good view of the bay on the way down!

There are a number of bays in and around Broadstairs, all of which are sandy and reasonably safe for children, although only Botany, Joss and Viking Bays have lifeguards. Viking Bay is also dog free from May until September!

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Weather Summary (Last updated Today)
Tides for Today (Last Updated Today)
What's On (Last Updated Friday March 29, 2013 )
Local News ( Last updated Thursday March 14 2013)

Weather for Broadstairs

Current Weather Conditions

Local Weather Forecast for next 2 days.

This afternoon Mostly Cloudy	Tonight Partly Cloudy	Wednesday Partly Cloudy	Wednesday night Partly Cloudy
<2 mm.			<2 mm.
High: 13°C	Low: 7°C	High: 17°C	Low: 6°C
NNW	NNW	NNW→ESE	NW
11-18	14-20	7-18→4	8-25→20-28
mph	mph	mph	mph
UV: 4  Medium		UV: 5  Medium

Local Tide Forecast for today

                   Time   Height(M)
   Low Tide:   3:30   1.1
  High Tide:   9:03   4.2
   Low Tide:  16:02   1.1
  High Tide:  21:25   4.5

What's on in Broadstairs & Thanet

Broadstairs Events coming soon

Date(s)	Event
Wed 8th May to Mon 11th Nov	St Peter's WW1 Graves Tour
Thu 9th May to Thu 19th Sep	St Peter's Village Tour
Wed 15th May to Mon 11th Nov	St Peter's WW2 Graves Tour
Wed 22nd May to Sat 14th Sep	St Peter's Churchyard Tour
Fri 7th Jun	Fab Music Night
Sat 15th Jun to Fri 21st Jun	Dickens Festival

For full details of all Broadstairs events see the events page.

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Thanet Events coming soon

Date(s)	Event
Tue 1st Jan to Tue 31st Dec	Turner Contemporary at Margate
Mon 27th May	Margate Meltdown

Local News

On March 12th we had a combination of a 5 metre tide and very strong NE winds creating a rough sea. There are a few more photos here.

Well a whole lot of hardy souls decided to brave the Sea at Viking Bay for the first swim in 2013 in aid of charity. There are a few more photos here.

Another local landmark has been taken down, this time the iconic Cooling Towers and Chimney of the old Richborough Power Station. After much local discussion and not a little opposition they were finally blown up on Sunday 12th March 2012 at 09:00 and took just under 30 seconds to come down. You can see a short video here. At present the Council have no plans to replace it, however if enough pressure is applied by anyone who feels strongly about this that might be changed.

A Broadstairs landmark has disappeared. The old hitching pole in Viking Bay finally collapsed and the stump left removed. The pole was recovered and currently the council are deciding whether to give it to the Crampton Tower Museum or Ramsgate Maritime Museum. This pole was used by the coal barges which used to come into Viking Bay in Victorian times and was probaly about 150 years old or more.

Now we have a one day heat wave in February 2012. Today I recored 19.4°C at 14:27hrs, the hottest February day I ever remember.

Well here we go again Winter has returned with a vengeance! There are some more photos here.

This was the state of a few beach huts on Viking Bay this morning Monday 28th November 2011 after a high tide during the night. Further north around Norfolk there was a tidal surge warning, sadly the sand defence erected by the Council was not enought to prevent this damage. There are a couple more photos here.

The BBC local South East Today news programme has announced that during August it will be coming live from a number of towns in the South East starting with Broadstairs on Friday 5th for the start of Folk Week.

Well the next company to use Broadstairs for filning an advert could be more different, on Friday 3rd June 2011 e had McDonalds filing their new advert on Viking Bay and they picked another quite windy day and half-term as well so it was busy with loads of spectators! There are some photos here.

On Sunday 22nd May 2011 we noticed a new Ice Cream kiosk was being built near the Pavilion, it turns out that on Monday 23rd May they were filming a new advert for Waitrose with Heston Blumenthal. There are some photos here.

Well the lovely weather which started before Easter has continued and over this extended bank holiday weekend, there has been a Fair in the Victoria Gardens and stalls along the promenade at Viking Bay. The Many Hoots Centre for Disabled Birds of Prey have been there all weekend with their beautiful birds which you can see and for small fee have your photo taken with. You can see some more photos of the weekend here.

The "Big Freeze" hasn't gone away yet, some photos taken on 19th December 2010 here. There is also a snowy panorama here.

The "Big Freeze" has come back with a vengence, some photos taken on 2nd December 2010 here.

Wednesday 26th May saw Ramsgate commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of Dunkirk in WWII by the iconic little ships. A selection of photos are here.

In April a group of Harley Davidson owners visited Broadstairs and parked their shiny bikes on the Harbour. A selection of photos are here.

The "Big Freeze" has not given up yet, just four more photos taken on 11th February 2010 here.

The "Big Freeze" continues and here in Broadstairs we have had more snow at the start of 2010. See more photos here.

Well we have had some snow in Broadstairs in 2009, not as much as many other places, but it did look very picturesque. There was even one hardy soul taking a dip! See some more photos here.

Sea Sunday took place again this year, there was a parade through the town from Pierremont Hall to the Harbour where several boats were anchored both in the Harbour and offshore, the Coastguard aircraft dropped poppies over the Harbour. See some photos from Sea Sunday 2009 here.

On Monday 19th January the ship Sinegorsk lost part of its cargo of wood overboard, later in the week some of this wood washed up on the Kent coast between Broadstairs and Ramsgate. Some photos of what was washed up are shown here. There is also some video available to watch on this page.

On 9th November 2007 there was a reported North Sea surge causing a danger of very high tides and possible flooding, fortunately it all passed off without any loss of life or major flooding. However the few photos shown here do give some idea of just how rough the sea was. If the tide had been higher who knows what might have happened.

On 28th and 29th September 2007 there were particularly high tides at Viking Bay, some of the beach huts nearly got washed away! There are some photos here.

On Sunday 26th August 2007 the RNLI held a fund raising Trawler Race from Ramsgate to Broadstairs Jetty and back. There are some photos of the Broadstairs end of the race here.

On Sunday 12th August 2007 Broadstairs had a visitor not seen for quite a long time in the harbour, a Thames sailing barge. This barge, called the Lady of the Lea arrived and moored against the Jetty near where many years ago similar barges could be seen delivering coal etc. Built of wood at Rotherhithe in 1931 by Hyam & Oliver for the War Department for Carriage of explosives from Waltham Abbey. The last sailing barge built she followed plans of canal barges of a century ago. To see some photos please go here.

On the 22nd May 2007 The Grand Turk was involved in a fund raising event in aid of the Cancer Care Appeal for the QEQM Hospital Margate. This involved a short trip out of Ramsgate Royal Harbour followed by a display by two WWII P-51 Mustangs, called 'Janie' & 'Big Beautiful Doll'. To see some photos of this event please go here.

For the school summer holiday period there is (weather permitting) a traditional Punch & Judy show on Viking Bay.

Each year over Viking Bay,during the summer holiday period, there is a firework display, if the wind is not too strong! See events for details. The photo is one of the fireworks which burst on the water and has become a regular part of the display.

On Thursday 9th June 2005 the Viking Longship at Pegwell Bay was returned to public display following restoration by Tommi Nielsen & Co, a firm specialising in maintaining historic sailing ships. This restoration was funded jointly by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Thanet Council. The photo on the left is before restoration and the one on the right is after.

Being a very picturesque place film crews sometimes use the various bays around Broadstairs. You can see some recent photos here when James Nesbit (star of Cold Feet) was at Viking Bay filming.

Also recently Disney was here filming for the children's TV show Diggin It. There are some photos here.