Margate Winter Gardens: Questions linger over future of iconic venue

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Questions linger over the future of an iconic venue that has helped bring prime ministers, the Beatles, and Laurel and Hardy to the Kent coast.

Carved into a cliffside in Margate, the Winter Gardens is considered a monument to the grandeur and elegance of the seaside town’s former heyday.

However, the building closes this week, with no decision made on its future.

Campaigner Jack Packman said: “My fear is that once it closes its doors it will never reopen again.”

With its Ionic columns and domed roof, the Winter Gardens was a bold statement for Margate when it opened in 1911.

The neo-Grecian style banqueting and conference hall was intended to be a focal point for the town’s local community and the pre-World War One generation of well-to-do seaside visitors.

The potential loss of the venue is being viewed as sad news by local historians, community activists, the leisure industry, and also performing artists.

For much of the 20th Century Margate was a hugely popular tourist destination.

However, like many other British seaside towns, it entered a period of decline following the onset of foreign package holidays in the 1970s.

Architecturally, the Winter Gardens has been one of the jewels in Margate’s crown. The town itself is considered by some to be an architectural gem, if somewhat dated and crumbling.