Turner Gallery at Sandy Sutheast Margate & Turner in London

The Turner Gallery

 The Turner Gallery in Margate is the  attraction credited with being the key to launching Margate as a revived attraction on Englan'd south east coast. Why put a Turner Gallery in Margate. Because that's where Turner grw up and went to school, lived on the sea front and went back throughout his life.

I associate Turner with water and skies and swirling lines and misty views of London. 

The Turner Gallery is a big, bold building. It holds rotating exhibitions so you should see something new on a first or returning visit.

It's easy to get to, being near the railway station.

Margate's Attractions

What else is in Margate? A former police station is now a museum. Margate was famous for its funfair. But with summer sun in June 2025, the sandy beach is the top attraction for families. So, indoors or outdoors, something for veryone to see at Margate. You can borrow wheelchairs onsite. 

The Turner Gallery's Best Features

I looked at the design of the gallery and wondered, why all straight lines? Why not restful soothing curves, like the Guggenheim in New York, the sails of Sydney opera house, Gaudi's cathedral, and houses? Then I thought, to hang pictures you need flat walls. At least it has a sloping roof to cope with England's rain. You would not want a flat roof gallery liable to leaks onto the artwork underneath.

All those steps! Maybe there's a lift for wheelchairs in that tower next to the steps on the right.

The gallery offers visitors a cafe, restaurant, free entry and free exhibitions. 90 minutes by train from London. 

The restaurant has a sea view. You can see their menu online.

You can check their prices, the Indian dishes, drinks including coffees and Prosecco.  

The food is not particuarly cheap, 6 to 10 pounds on the breakast and lunch menus, but the gallery is free, so heigh ho.

What if you don't care for Turner? The weird thing is that they don't have ermanent Turner Paintings on display. 

Instead the Turner Gallery in Margate regularly show works inspired by Turner. And they run free workshop events for children in some afternoons. 

Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate.

Their webstite says step free access. The nearest car park is 5 minutes away and makes a charge. It is near the lifeboat station. You can borrow wheelchairs onsite.

Turner Art in London

If you want to see Turner pictures, the gallery with the largest collection is the Tate Modern in London. So you might go there first, and follow up with the Margate landscape and seascape which surrounded Turner when he grew up. Turner bequeathed (left in his will) his paintings to the nation, and you can see them in the Tate Modern aas well as in the National Gallery which is on Trafalgar Square in central London.

Useful Websites

https://turnercontemporary.org/visit-us/accessibility#wheelchair-and-physical-access

The Tuerne Gallery's Louise Food

https://www.louieonsea.com/about/

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner#:~:text=Turner%20bequeathed%20much%20of%20his,are%20now%20at%20Tate%20Britain.

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Margate Meltdown With Big Bikes and a Boistrous Band - Memories & Motorbike Museums

Margate is easily reached on a day out from London. Margate is on the north Kent coast, East of London. Margate seaside, all year, has a sandy beach, a landmark lighthouse, a clock tower, and a shell statue. 

Margate lighthouse. Photo from Sharot family. Copyright.

• Shell statue, Margate. Photo from Sharot family. Copyright.

Beautiful Bikes

On the Spring bank holiday Monday, of May 26th 2025, Margate offered an additional attraction, Margate Meltdown attracted motorbikes from London. The event is free. And fun.

Margate Meltdown 2025 motorbikes. Photo from Sharot family. Copyright.

This annual event has taken place every year since the 1960s. (During Covid the event was officially cancelled. But some bikers unofficially left London and made their way to Margate. Probably wearing masks, and keeping at a distance from other bikers, to avoid the risk of getting arrested.)

Events - band and rides

A great place for blokes who like bikes. The person in my family who would have enjoyed it most was not there. My husband had other commitments. Just looking at pictures of this year's and previous years' Margate Meltdown brings back memories for me.

Biking Memories

My husband is a keen biker since he was a teenager. He reads Motorbike News. I used to get sent to buy it in London when he was away.

He is an intrepid rider. He has ridden a motorbike back from holiday London to Switzerland (where he was working) in snowy weather. 

He used to ride from Singapore to Malaysia in a convoy with a group of friends. Local Malays, pedestrians, and those with smaller, cheaper scooters, would admire his big bike when he parked. A great conversation opener with friendly strangers.

In Malaysia he also took courses in bike riding, coping with corners, balance, speed, slowing, and safety, from Olympic competers and winners. Afterwards, I would listen, wide eyed and open mouthed, in silent, unexpressed horror, when he told me how you tipped over on the bike. When not to put your foot down on the ground because you would fall off, and damage the bike ... ! 

We would divert to bike supply shops to buy replacement gloves, and whole leather suits with protection for knees and elbows. After his had horrific holes!

Magical Margate

This year, 2025, my family, the other ones, who are not bikers, drove from London and went to enjoy the Margate sandy seaside. They were pleasantly surprised to find themselves amid happy crowds dancing in the open air on the seafront to the sounds of a jolly band. Seasonal attractions included funair type rides for the family.  

Our four-year-old loved dancing on the seafront, walking across the sand, trying the rides. I keep replaying the videos, picking out the landmarks in the background of videos and photos, comparing them with captioned photos on Wikipedia and Wiki Commons and Wiki Voyage.

Margate Sands

If you are interested in Margate, the seaside is quieter the rest of the year. You can trot across the sand. Be prepared to get sand in your shoes!

Bike Museums

If you are interested in bikes, there are several museums which we have visited in the UK and the USA. Many car and motor museums also have small sections on bikes. 

Weird and Wonderful Underwater, Waterside and Shell Restaurants, Hotels & Grottoes

Shell Grotto, Margate, Kent, UK

Jules Undersea Lodge, Key Largo, Florida, USA

2 bed, 1 bath. A former underwater observatory.

Underwater Hotel, Fiji

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon_Undersea_Resorts

After Angkor Wat, more must see marvels of wonderful weird architecture, UK, France, Spain, India, Mexico, Worlwide

1 France, Hauterives

Ferdinand's Palace. Picture from Wikipedia.

French postman Ferdinand Cheval (French for horse) built this Palace of rocks, in his spare time, working far into the night. He was a widower with a son brought up by godparents. The postman wanted to be buried in his palace but this was not allowed so he built his own mausoleum in a cemetery.

Ferdinand's Mausoleum.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Cheval

://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3004102/Labour-love-Tenacious-postman-spends-33-years-building-impressive-PALACE-pebbles-collected-daily-route.

2 Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Park

Photo by Dezwitzer in Wikipedia, article on Buddha Park, Laos.

3 The Rock Garden of Chandigarh, India

4 Méxiico castle in Xilitla SLP by Sir Edward James, who was born in Scotland.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3004102/Labour-love-Tenacious-postman-spends-33-years-building-impressive-PALACE-pebbles-collected-daily-route.html#ixzz3V2hDbCPo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

5 Gaudi's Cathedral and block of flats, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

6 Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, USA

wiki/Philadelphia%27s_Magic_Gardens

If you can't travel so far:

Shell grotto, Margate.

Shell house, Framingham, Norfolk, at English coast village with seafood festival and RNLI exhibition of pier with lifeboat (see my previous post). We tried to get in to see it on a Sunday about noon but it is manned by volunteers and no sign of opening time so we had to drive off for lunch on our way home to London.


For more locations and photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Visionary_environments

This list includes some spooky catacombs of mummified bodies. 

The most modern and uplifting suggestions is the Gardens By The Bay in Singapore. The nearest MRT train station is currently Bayfront and the other station Gardens by the bay will be open by 2021.


If you like staying in unusual places, and I do, there's the Crazy House in Vietnam:
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hằng_Nga_Guesthouse

Tripadvisor has collections of unusual hotels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_by_the_Bay Angela Lansbury BA Hons, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.
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