News Blast: Battle to revive Ramsgate's High Street makes national news
The latest creative and cultural news from Thanet and East Kent, including high street revival and new cinemas
Work to revive Ramsgate High Street makes the national news, a new Indian-themed pub for Margate, two new cinemas and more. The latest creative and cultural news from across Thanet and East Kent.
Ramsgate Space has been featured on Channel 4 News, highlighting the issue of empty shops on British high streets and the organisation’s work to improve that in Ramsgate. “Empty shops matter because they touch on so many different components of local life,” says co-founder Louise . “They impact on how people feel about the place - if you go into a town centre and see masses of boarded up shops, you don’t feel good about the place you live in.” Also included in the report are Salt, Screaming Alley, Differences Not Disabilities and Giant Coffee.
Zita Whalley
More details have emerged about new Margate High Street pub Henry’s, which is currently being fitted out to open later this year. Run by a team including Fez’s Phil Evans and former owner of South Indian and Sri Lankan restaurant The Riz, Paul Singh Tung. Those still pining for The Riz will be pleased to know that the bar will serve a menu of Indian food. It will be “authentic and not changing to anybody's taste, just as it should be,” Tung tells Kent Online. It’s hoped that the grand opening will come before Christmas.
Ramsgate Community Cinema is back in a new venue. Having left its High Street location earlier this year, it can now be found at Paragon Works, Albert Street. You can catch a screening of documentary Sisters with Transistors as part of Ramsgate Festival of Sound on Sunday at 3pm. Stay tuned for details of the new programme. Ticket prices remain pay-what-you-can on the door, with free popcorn on Wednesdays.
Another new cinema for Kent, Black Pearl Cinema opens in Whitstable on Wednesday, October 1. Housed in the Horsebridge Arts Centre, it will have a programme of cult classics curated by film writer Mark Banville and film producer Michael O’Connell. It opens with Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, starring James Mason and Ava Gardener. Other upcoming films included Sexy Beast and My Night at Maud’s.
Social Enterprise Kent has announced the return of its children's creative writing competition The Big Writing Challenge. Kids aged 5-16 are invited to write or record a piece of writing on the theme ‘curious creatures’ in whatever format they like, so long as it's under 500 words. Winners will see their work published in a printed book and be invited to a launch event next year. Full details.
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