Property News · September 19, 2014

Let's move to Birchington-on-Sea, Kent


It’s not modern, but it’s marvellousWhat’s going for it? This is not quite Walmington-on-Sea (fictional setting of classic BBC series Dad’s Army). But almost. The town, somewhere on the south coast, was the epitome of modest but doughty little England, qualities Birchington keeps up with aplomb. It seems little affected by life since 1971. Bakers sell cream horns, second-hand shops have jaunty names (Just A Second), streets are wrapped in veranda-ed Tudorbethans or 50s parades, and I even spy VCRs for sale, a nod to The Future. It’s all marvellous, like Whitstable before the artisan cupcake brigade invaded. This little patch of our proud island (itself once on an isle of its own; Thanet, since reconnected to Blighty by a drawbridge of silt) remains, packed with Englishmen’s castles, in every style, escapees all from The Rest of the World. My favourite? Britain’s first estate of bungalows, the Towers, grand affairs compared with their offspring, with turrets for ship-spotting, an air of the Raj and advertised to “gentlemen of position and leisure”. Is that Captain Mainwaring snoozing on the patio?The case against “Eve-ry day is like Sun-day.” Too right, Morrissey; apart from the busy Canterbury Road, which is busier than the M6. A dab of modernity wouldn’t go amiss. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s move to Birchington-on-Sea, Kent

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