Discover Margate
Turner's sunsets, a shell grotto nobody can date and a town that never pretended to be pretty
The original cockney seaside, still working out what it is now
Margate sits on the north-east corner of the Isle of Thanet, the chalk headland that was a genuine island until the Wantsum Channel silted up. The sea faces north here, which is why the sunsets go out over water rather than behind the town, and why JMW Turner kept coming back. Sea bathing turned the place into a resort in the eighteenth century, the railway turned it into a mass one in the nineteenth, and cheap flights took most of that away again in the twentieth.
What happened next is the bit people argue about. Turner Contemporary opened on the seafront in 2011, Dreamland reopened as a heritage amusement park, and the Old Town filled up with independents. The recovery has been real and it has also been patchy. Both things are true at the same time, and any guide that only tells you one of them is selling you something.
Where To Eat
From fine dining seafood to fish and chips by the harbour
Angela's
Thirty-odd covers on The Parade, a menu rewritten daily around what the boats landed, and a seriously worked-out approach to sourcing.
Sargasso
A tiny counter-seating wine bar wedged into the Harbour Arm sea wall, doing shared seafood and vegetable plates since 2021.
Peter's Fish Factory
The chip shop on The Parade, thirty seconds from the sand, open to 22:00 most nights and later at weekends.
What's On
Upcoming events and things happening in Margate
Margate Carnival Parade
RecurringA free costume and samba parade the full length of the seafront, from Palm Bay to Westbrook Bay. Anyone can register to walk in it.
Margate Pride
RecurringA community-run, arts-led Pride: a free seafront march on Pride Day plus a month-long festival programme across the town. Tenth edition in 2026.
Dreamland Summer Live Season
RecurringOpen-air concerts through the summer in the amusement park. On gig days the park itself shuts early, which catches families out.
Margate Bookie
RecurringThe town's literary festival, run as a charity, spread across venues in Margate over a weekend in October.
Margate Right Now
Margate is in the sunniest, driest corner of Britain on paper, which is how it became a resort in the first place. In practice the seafront faces north into open water with nothing to break the wind, so bring a layer more than the temperature suggests. Sea temperature peaks in early autumn, not midsummer.
🚆 National Rail from Margate
Live departures
National Rail service from Margate. Updates every few minutes.