A Hanoverian Watering-Place: Margate before the Railway

Abstract

A craze for sea bathing and seaside holidays grew out of the publicity given to the medical advantages of sea-water treatment in the 1750s and 1760s, and Margate was the first of the Thanet coastal towns to cater for visitors in search of health and pleasure by the sea. A guidebook of 1813 observed that ‘It was merely a fishing town, and one dirty narrow lane … was the principal part of the town. From the salubrity of the air, and the convenience of sea bathing … it eventually rose from its state of insignificance into a handsome and even celebrated town. The cheapness and convenience of the packet boats have doubtless greatly contributed to the popularity of the place.’¹ This contemporary observation belonged to the coaching and hoy era of Margate’s history. The eighteenth-century foundations of Margate as a seaside resort had been built up on communications by coach and hoy. Hoys were originally single-masted cargo sailing vessels, usually carrying corn into London and returning to Thanet with shop goods; accustomed to taking passengers, they gave way during the later eighteenth century to sailing packets and sailing yachts.