margate memories.

in keeping with the beach theme today, this post is about margate, the old sea side resort town in kent, england. my junior year of college i received a scholarship to travel and do "research" for my senior thesis, which was on 'the lives of the individual within a youth culture' aka mods {art school is weird}. so i traveled to london by myself and wandered around for two weeks. i visited carnaby street and talked with tailors on saville row. i saw two movies every day at the british film institute's british sixties film fest and just generally tried to soak it all up. one of the big reasons that i went was to attend an all-nighter in the town of margate, which is basically 48 continuous hours of soul dancing, scooter rallies and soccer matches. i got to see the creation play, pick up some 45s and cute dresses, gape at the scooters and since i was alone i got sort of adopted by some 30 something scottish guys who showed me around the town. when i marveled at how beautiful i thought the place was i was told that "it was complete shite now" and that it had gotten really run down. it's true that in it's heyday it was a destination for the rich {and a spot for clashes between the mods and the rockers ala brighton beach} but as i found on the margate architecture blog there are people in the town trying hard to keep the old england feel while also revitalizing the area with new shops and museums. i think that's great because someday i'd really like to go back there and see how it's changed. hopefully next time i'll remember to book a room and won't end up sleeping on a bench in the train station wearing a short white a-line with hot pink tights. yikes.

{photos via margate arch and modculture}