What is less well known is that just three miles east, along the top of the protruding thumb of land that is the Isle of Thanet, is an altogether different townscape, in the charming neighbourhood of Westgate-on-Sea.
Officially a separate town, it adjoins Margate without a break and feels more like a genteel neighbourhood in the same burg. But in stark contrast to Margate’s bold and bright 1920s funfair Dreamland, which you really can’t miss on the main drag, Westgate’s cultural icon is the beautiful Carlton Cinema. Built in 1910, it’s still showing films – £3.50 all week, £4.50 for Lounge seats.
With the quaint Frederick’s café serving tea in flowery china cups at the front of the building, you expect to look out of the window into the small buzzy high street and see a Suffragette strolling past.
Just three minutes’ walk from here, towards the sweeping sands of St Mildred’s beach, brings you to the rugged stone frontage of Hamilton Lodge, a substantial Victorian house, in the Scots baronial style, built around 1875. And while it’s impressive enough from the outside, once you step through the front door, your eyes pop open in surprise.
Not just at a glimpse through the lilac-painted vestibule of the wonderful flamingo wallpaper and striking mother-of-pearl waterfall chandelier in the guest loo, but at the extraordinary proportions of the main hall. The ceilings are a good 14 feet high, so there is ample room to accommodate the two ornate gilded chandeliers, which in keeping with the playful grandeur of the house are joyously mismatched – one twining ivy, the other wheat sheaves.
The same light-handed approach to decorating a house that could be overbearing if furnished too much in keeping with its period, is seen in the combination of the kind of traditional furniture you would expect to see in such a residence – a chesterfield armchair and a club chair, both in nicely worn chestnut leather – with a bold and bright modern abstract painting on the wall above them.
It is one of many displayed throughout Hamilton Lodge by the Dutch painter Marijke Hoekstra – which gives a clue about the owners of the house. One of them – the one giving me the tour – is Dutch. The other one, her husband, is American, but beyond that they would prefer to be known just as the Owners. I think I’ll take a leaf from one of Dr Seuss’s books and call them Owner One and Owner Two.
The Owners bought the house after a search for a second home for very specific reasons and requiring very specific features. “The Dutch are used to space,” Owner One tells me, as we sit at the large dining table, off the kitchen. “London can be claustrophobic, so with two kids and two dogs we wanted space, clean air and water.
“We looked at other seaside towns within easy reach of London, but they had pebble beaches. Ramsgate, just down the coast has a lovely beach, but it drops away steeply to deep water which isn’t that safe for kids. Margate itself gets very busy in summer and we have enough of crowds in London.
“Then one of our kids came on a school trip to St Mildred’s Bay – the beach which is just a couple of hundred of metres away, at the end of the street – and that was it. It’s a lovely sandy bay that is shallow for a long way out, there is another beach, Westgate Bay, right next to it and it’s only an hour and 15 minutes to drive from where we live in London.”
With the location location location decided the house hunt was on – and they had a list of requirements for that too. “We wanted space, high ceilings – and working fireplaces were a must. It had to be close to the beach and have a sea view from at least one bedroom.”
After the run of frustration and disappointment that dog most property quests, this one came along, ticking all those boxes – and already having a large modern kitchen extension built at the back.
So the house is pure Victorian from the front and decidedly 21st century from the rear, with a wall of glass onto the garden and a space large enough for a huge dining table, plus a sofa and king-size TV, furnished with a mix of modern and mid-century vintage pieces, set off against a wall of bold wallpaper.
But while that was the ideal set up for modern family life, Owner One explained how it needed some tweaks to optimise the visual impact. “We widened the gap between the kitchen and the family/dining area so now you can see right out to the garden from the front of the house.”
They also put in a smart new grey and orange kitchen, with a cool area of exposed brick and with, what Owner One explained to me is Dutch pragmatism, two large fridges and two dishwashers.
“As well as using the house as our family weekender and holiday home, we also let it out – and it can sleep 15, plus dogs and babies. When you’ve got 15 people you need a lot of food storage and you don’t want plates all over the kitchen.”
Stepping from the extension back into the original house, the first room you come to – the sitting room – continues the sophisticated feel, with feature bookcases painted a striking teal (or possibly Air Force blue…) with a sleek cocktail chair and ottoman from Made.com in the same colour velvet. Another painting by Marijke Hoekstra hangs over the fireplace.
“I lived next to her when I was a student,” says Owner One. “I loved her work, but I couldn’t afford to buy one, so when I inherited some money from my parents I thought it would be a lovely way to spend it.”
We walk back through the bright yellow hall – “This is a chill out zone” – and into the library where there are two particularly striking high-backed wooden armchairs, next to the Kelly-green tiled fireplace, which came from the home of Owner One’s late parents.
On the wall – next to a bookcase full of children’s books – is a display of Arthur Rackham’s iconic illustrations from Owner Two’s childhood, the rows of simple frames all lined up perfectly. “We had a professional picture framer hang all the pictures in the whole house for £500. We never could have put all these up straight.”
Upstairs, another family heirloom is the statement piece in the really extraordinary Master Bedroom. The room is truly huge – the perfect proportions for the splendid 17th century armoire that came from her parents’ house. So right does it look in the room: “When my brother visited and he saw it in here, he said ‘It’s home now…’”
And is that where the beautiful four-poster frame bed that goes so perfectly with it came from? No. That was from eBay…
The next bedroom on the same floor – also the size of the average London one-bedder – has a more 20th century glamour feel, painted the most gorgeous pink with a padded and buttoned pink velvet headboard against a wall of rather deco wallpaper, which gives it a bit of a Biba air. Adding to the slightly theatrical feel of this room, on top of each of the built-in cupboards (original to the house), is a white globe lamp from IKEA. It’s a great lighting effect. Adding a warm touch is a lovely roll-top desk, that is another family heirloom.
Next to this bedroom is a striking black and white tiled bathroom and then along the corridor is another bedroom, with the mix of sources which is becoming a theme of the house. The wooden bed was inherited, as was the chest of drawers, and the bedside lamps are from Tesco.
Going up again, we pass a beautiful American blue and white antique patchwork quilt which belonged to Owner Two’s mother, hanging on the wall – where you can admire every tiny precise stitch as you pass.
On the top floor, there is the kids’ room with a jaunty blue and white marine theme, with two singles, a trundle and a sofa bed, providing enough accommodation to sleep five – no doubt, very excited – children. It’s very easy to imagine the high jinks that go on in that room at bedtime…
Next to that, at the top and the front of the house, is another large, light and airy bedroom, with wonderfully bold stripe wallpaper on the sloping eaves opposite the bed. This is the – formally required – bedroom from which you can see the sea and the one Owner One and Owner Two use when they are in residence.
The very adorable pale blue and white 1960s dressing table was a £35 London junk shop find – the town is famous for it. The very stylish recycled wood wardrobe and bedside tables are by Loaf.com and the blue and white lamps on the tables by Pooky.
Back down one half-landing is the sixth bedroom – the rambling plan makes it feels like there are far more – which they call the French Room. More sweetly girly it has pretty wallpaper, a 1960s Louis Fooey chest of drawers and an iron bed (Gumtree again).
At the end of the corridor is the final bathroom – which is possibly my favourite room in the whole house. Painted a gorgeous petrol blue it has two groovy sit-atop basins on marble stands opposite each other – which is so much more appealing than spitting out toothpaste side by side, which I’ve always thought must be rather a passion killer…
Adding to the luxurious, boutique hotel-feel the floor is slate tiled, with heating underneath and there is a huge walk-in shower, in what is almost a separate room. The finishing touch is toiletries with Hamilton Lodge printed on them, ready for rental guests coming that weekend. A reminder that while it really is the most perfect family retreat – ticking all those space, beach proximity and original features boxes and full of very personal things – those very details are what also make it the perfect large-group holiday getaway.
