1 PRINT IN THANET - COVER & BACK COVER & TEXT - FLIPBOOK v26 ZZZ - FAW - Flipbook - Page 19
Tri-ang/Hornby, who made their model trains and Airfix soldiers at
Westwood for 50 years. Rediffusion, another well-known name, providing
the UK’s first cable television service piped from the Isle of Thanet to homes
across England. Rediffusion also developed a precursor to the internet in
the 1980s and were at the sharp edge of innovation until the 1990s. In 1954,
Pfizer opened research laboratories at Sandwich, inventing a way to massproduce penicillin and winning numerous awards over the next 60 years.
Positioned at the heart of this innovative activity was Thanet’s print industry.
Printing businesses served not only local businesses and society but also
global business names, royalty, governments and popular culture with its
high-quality print.
Since these prosperous times the role and methods of printing have
continued to change and evolve. The scale of employment in the local
industry is now very different. Today a quick Google search lists just
nineteen firms. Most printers in Thanet now combine traditional methods
with digital processes, or work entirely with digital technologies. They
require less space for workers and equipment and outsource some of the
processes beyond Thanet. The result has been that many of the original
buildings have been lost or repurposed and with these changes the stories
of the print industry and its workers have almost been lost from view.
The island has continued to change and evolve. Ramsgate has its Royal
Harbour, and is still an active port for pleasure craft, and the rugged boats
that service the offshore windfarms north of Margate. Broadstairs is the
quintessential seaside town, a curve of beach at the break in the chalk
cliffs, with the town piled up picturesque behind it. Margate is brash, East
London once again come to the seaside, proud of its egalitarian spirit and
reinventing itself through art and culture. The international art gallery
Turner Contemporary opened over ten years ago, and the Old Town is now
a jumble of small galleries, vintage shops, and quirky cafes. First waves of
people attracted to the area for low house prices, seaside air and highspeed rail links to London and Europe have been followed by businesses
new to the area.
In the last couple of years, investment has started to return to Thanet
and with it a growing need for space. This has brought new interest in the
area’s old and industrial buildings. Just outside the Old Town in Margate,
in a street dominated by a pair of huge early Georgian terraces (that must
have been shocking when new) there is a cluster of twentieth century
industrial buildings. These comprise a couple of Edwardian frontages; the
curve of a 1930s shop front, and some 1950s modernism. Although all of
these buildings were once at risk of being replaced by a vast new block of
flats, the site has been saved. It is being repurposed by the new business
interests, and already includes a private gallery selling original work aimed
