Margate is a seaside town that resides on the Isle of Thanet, a fairly infamous place anyway, trying to find fame or grab the headlines however it can.
I’m 18 years old, lived in Margate all of my life, and about to move to Portsmouth for University. Its fair to say this about Margate: There are 2 types of people who live in Margate. 1) You will eventually get an education, move away or get a well paid job elsewhere, or 2) You get stuck here for the rest of your life, or move here because it’s got cheap housing.
Pretty standard for here. I say dystopia, as a term that fits Margate very well. in some places, it is very run down, with lots of poverty and is ******** with 12 year olds drinking Frosty Jacks cider, the smell of weed on most streets and fair to say, a lot of *****. However, it does have some nice areas though, but since this is to bash about my hometown, I’ll stick to the bad parts mostly, cause’ why not.
Margate is a fairly strange place, in the run down areas, such as Cliftonville, it is populated by 4 types of people: 1) People who are just trying to get by and hope to move out some day, 2) People who have conformed to the benefits and drinking Frosty Jacks, and wearing tracksuits, all day, no matter what season, and cause trouble. 3) Immigrants who genuinely try to make the best of their situation and provide for their kids, by getting jobs and contributing (Same as people in No 1)and finally 4) The human traffikers and gangs who roam Cliftonville and cause a lot of trouble at night, and even in the day sometimes.
Margate is a hard place to live in most days, but you do get used to it. Its just a shame that people are so negative and in that sense, are preventing its own growth, especially with the rise of Anti-immigrant/foriegner feelings, because Margate mostly thrives of Tourism, and there have been reports of Students or tourists being attacked or mugged, which is pretty much outrageous. The Immigrant population are also very uneasy in the rougher areas, and most get chanted with horrific racism. Our immigrant population percentage (From statistics in a census) is actually under the average for a town, but some make it think that half the population are foreign when its not, its just the foreigners are more outgoing than the natives.
People can be very negative, and also can tend to be very, very hostile to each other. You don’t trust anyone on the streets, everyone doesn’t look at each other in the eyes or just looks down so you don’t see their face. Its quite sad, but that is what has happened. Peoples attitudes around here are mostly rude, annoying or just ****. ***** seem to be a majority population with the young, and is the go to lifestyle. People will wolf whistle, shout or threaten you, but most actually never take action. Only the really stupid ones who are either high or drunk will try and do something stupid. Talking about drunk people, we probably have the worst drunk people in the whole of Kent. Whether they’re stumbling out of Wetherspoons, Kabuki or the many pubs that dot everywhere in Margate, most likely someone will be either partially insane, violent for stupid reasons such as ‘You chatted up my bird init’ or will be so damn loud. Just the Thanetian way, I guess.
Hopefully things will change with the re-opening of Dreamland, and hopefully the council will pull their stuff together and use the new amount of money to improve places in Margate.
And for the nice bit, yes, Margate can be very nice at times. People do have some sense of hardiness, that we get through whatever is thrown at us. We complain a lot, but we get on with it. So you do get the rare moment where you will see people helping each other out, where there are long lines for blood donations sometimes, and also, people complain about the Turner centre, and that Turner didn’t really contribute to Margate. But one thing he definitely go right, was this quote: “…the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe” And that is a quote I can definitely agree with him on. Margate can be a pretty place, especially in Summer.
Alas, visit at your own accord and risk, the Margate Massive might just get you next!
