Whitstable

The Royal Native Oyster Stores

In Whitstable for a birthday treat. Last night we had a fine dinner at the Royal Native Oyster Stores and now it is time to explore the town. We were staying at the Hotel Continental and began by turning right along the seafront and heading east. Quite soon you come to an intriguing spit of gravel heading out to sea. This is known as The Street and is apparently about half a mile long at low water.

If you click to expand the photo you will see some mushroom-like shapes on the horizon. These are Red Sands Sea Forts - anti-aircraft defences erected in 1942. There are close-up pictures on the Underground Kent website. I first learned about them on the Coast programme on the TV and is was great to be reminded by the strange shapes out to sea.

We now headed inland to find Whitstable's Castle. The tower was built in the 1790s and substantially extended by Wynn Ellis in the mid 19th century. He seems to have been a bit of character, being MP for Leicester, a successful London silk merchant and art collector, and JP and Sheriff of  Hertfordshire. He used the house to accommodate his mistress. We thought that the tower, with its contrasting brickwork, was the most pleasing part - the later elaborations look even more obviously like pastiche.

The grounds are now Whitstable's only park. You leave by the imposing gatehouse, built by the next owner in the late 19th century.

Opposite is the pleasing Coach House, with more nicely contrastinbg brickwork in an unusual colour combination.

Just down the hill, towards the centre of the town you pass Wynn Ellis's Almshouses of 1875, built with a legacy left by the great man (who also gave his art collection to the National Gallery and I think endowed the parish church).

We now returned to the sea front and soon reach the harbour, where a lively food and craft market was underway.

Whitstable is still a working port and there are a number of fishing boats and a substantial works which imports aggregates, giving part of the area a surprisingly industrial tone.

Beyond the harbour, at low tide, the mud flats stretch out towards the Isle of Sheppey opposite.

We headed a little inland now to walk along Harbour Street, to the left of the entertaining Harbour Building of 1905 - it now houses an appealing clothes shop.

It is a lively shopping street with a quirky selection of small shops - a wonderful antidote to the identikit high streets of most towns. Towards the end of the street there are some nicely gabled Victorian buildings, with local institution Wheelers Oyster bar pretty in pink at the far end.

Harbour Street gives way to the High Street, which largely continues the individual character. The church of St Alphege (1844-5) stands opposite the threatre.

Further along there is a former cinema dramatically converted into a pub and highlighting its art deco history. The actor Peter Cushing apparently lived a few hundred yards away.

We now turned right to reach the sea front again, walked past last night's restaurant and along Island Wall where there are some nice 19th century houses, some timber-boarded.

This was effectively the end of our walk, which we had thoroughly enjoyed. We adjourned to the tiny Williams and Brown tapas bar in Harbour Street for a really excellent lunch.

Pevsner, my usual resource for town walks, doesn't rate Whitstable at all. "There is no sense in perambulating Whitstable. The only worthwhile bit is by the beach, Island Wall and Middle Wall ..." Things have clearly improved since 1969 or perhaps I was just in a very good mood!

Conditions: fresh at first, but sunny and warm later.

Distance: about 2.5 miles.

Rating: four stars (including half a star for the quality of the shopping). There is something just wonderful about strolling by the sea.

Postscript

This part of north Kent is apparently famous for the quality of its sunsets. I wasn't aware of this until we arrived, but as conditions seemed reasonably auspicious last night I took my camera to the restaurant. The elements delivered pretty well.