Ramsgate is built on and between two lofty chalk cliffs. The opening is supposed to have given the place its name, the Gate of Ruim, the British name for Thanet, though it possibly derives from a Saxon personal source. During recent times the appearance of the town has undergone great changes, especially along the front. Ramsgate has now much to be proud of in its sunny terraces, gay gardens, and wonderful facilities for pleasure, sport and entertainment. In spite of modern developments, however, the town itself retains much of its old-time picturesqueness, the quaint grouping of the houses, one above the other, with the piers and the shipping in the foreground, preventing any approach to the monotony of outlook characteristic of some seaside resorts. In the day, sea, sky and sands, with green-topped white cliffs in the background, set off the human kaleidoscope, while at night the cleverly disposed illuminations pick out slopes and terraces with most delightful effect. — The Kent Coast, p. 63
Ramsgate, West Cliff, by an unknown British artist, 1857.
Architecture
- St Augustine's Abbey Church, Ramsgate, by A.W.N. Pugin
- The Grange, Ramsgate
- St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate, by A.W.N. Pugin
- Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, by E.W. Pugin
- Terraced houses, Ramsgate, by E.W. Pugin
- Obelisk, Ramsgate
- Montefiore Synagogue, by David Mocatta
- Lighthouse, Ramsgate
- [Review of] Catriona Blaker's Ellington Park Ramsgate: A Short Celebratory History
Painting
Cartoons
- Captain and Mrs. Waters Greeting The Tuggses Family on Ramsgate Sands, by Robert Seymour (1836)
- The People’s Pleasures. No 2. Ramsgate Sands (Fun, 1865)
- Ramsgate Sands. — No. 1 by George Du Maurier (Punch, 1867)
- Ramsgate Sands. — No. 2 by George Du Maurier (Punch, 1867)
News Items
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
The Kent coast: Whitstable, Herne Bay, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Canterbury, Deal, Walmer, Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Dungeness,/span>. Ward, Lock and Company, 1968.
Created 19 April 2026