FL Â NEUR GUIDE Deal is one of those places that time seems to have left behind. A key NORTH DEAL (ND) LOWER DEAL F merchantile port that grew into a garrison town and later into a minor N 273 Modernist house with a pronoun- resort, Deal with Walmer has singularily avoided the brutal effects of Sandown Road North End (NE) ced sculptural quality; originally not Royal Cinque College Road LC Mediterranean Modernist garden court, mid C20 commercialism that has disfigured many a sea-side area. unlike a Donald Judd piece. By Leslie SS Ports Golf Club, Hight’s CH Old flour store with nicely tapering chimney, –1810? The oldest part, lying a short distance north of Deal Castle (the castle’s 1892 Kemp & Tasker, 1935. Sadly disfigured Brewery 271 Immaculate ’30s house built by 1 Quirky overhanging roof to rear extension commander insisted on a clear angle of fire for his gunners) remains a Sandown George Denne, with a glazed pantiled 4 Handsome, double-fronted brick house on a shallow Restoration gem despite the intentions of misguided councillors and Castle, 3C roof that reflects the moon and nice site; formerly the home of a Cinque Ports pilot, c1725 rapacious developers. Lower Walmer to the south, set between sea and (demolished replacement windows, 1936 An old town shop Most charming Yon Sea, Ivy clad Seagirt, 15 Unspoilt cottage with many original features, 1710 railway, is less old, mainly Regency and Victorian, and boasts smart 1863) Line of old 171 Jolly residence with tent-like leaded NE:18a NE:124 NE:SG 12 One of Deal’s many bulging edifaces, its curved gable, barracks, handsome stuccoed villas and Henrician castle (which I cover sea wall 273 canopies and terracotta swags, 1896 CH uniquely for the old town, fronting the street, 1690 47a In 1928, JB Priestley wrote Good Ark Lane later along with that of Deal). A mile or so towards Dover, up Drum Hill, 271 North St 191 Former boarding house, 1800. Lodgers: an owner of Companions whilst staying in this the ancient village of Walmer dates from the Norman times and has a Princes Street 4 SG a Cape goldmine, a lady who ran a funfair in Margate fine old church and remains of a fortified manor house. wonderfully preserved, seaside home 1 < Deal to Sandwich 39-41 Grandly scaled, early Victorian Peter Street Alfred Square Dolphin St Seagirt RE Seafront hotel, like many former commercial buildings A G U I D E T O & P L A C E S Immediately westward of the old town of Deal (or should I say the New Road c.1535 terrace with curved end section and 1782– Prince 15 12 in Deal shorn of its painted lettering, c1800? Site of Beach Street Town as it was once called) lie a network of streets built to accommo- Albert 191 windmill balcony; Cutty Sark owner John ‘White LC SG Last house removed seaward of Beach Street, ivy date a burgeoning population at the time of the Napoleonic Wars; and Hat’ Willis had a home here. c1840 Middle St clad with wonderfully idiosyncratic bargeboards, –C19 Godwyn Road AC Old lifeboat station sans belfry but BUILDINGS IN across the railway is suburban Middle Deal, mostly turn of the century; RE 18a Regency shopfront to what was once Goldfinch & retaining its interesting terracotta Curved gable, ‘between the wars’ south of Church Path. 171 Exchange St Sons’ bakery shop, early C19. Four buns please missus roundels, the right one dated 1883 NE:12 Big Chief 182 12.5 cm to 1 km/7.8 inches mile If you go westwards down Queen Street, and then via Church Path if you 19 cm to .5 km/12 inches mile MR Conjoined houses with a ’30s interior, walk-in safe George St I-Spy’s home and Merchants Room with painted mural, C17? are walking, or continue along London Road if you are not, you will reach Harold Road the old village of Addelam (Upper Deal) and its interesting Norman 151-153 Sh, 45 Pair of smart ‘London’ houses, in yellow brick Houses, with red rubbers; both with central doorways, early C19 church with white cupola and pleasant Georgian houses. If you do decide c1900 Water Street 133 Wonderfully bold refronting to early gabled house to walk, which I recommend, you will pass by Court Lodge, an old Tudor The Marina Griffin St Manse, probably the first house built between village and coast. 18a reflecting the vogue for the Italianate, –c1850 Flint base 19 Unrendered brick house with rubble and flint footings And to complete this overview I must mention Mill Hill, a sprawling estate NORTH DEAL 180 Portobello Ct MR to Sandown Late-Georgian, and an extremely tall doorcase, C17 between the two villages, built for miners and their families in 1929; and Farm barn ND class II, 1785 45 Silver St 127 One of the town’s first cottages. The vertical brick North Deal with its charming Edwardian houses facing the sea. Sandown Road Shiny ’30s house The Ivy Place infills on the upper part of its facade indicate the ND:271 Ship Fishermen’s huts, chapels and windmills dotted Deal’s beach as far back Sh Pilot position of net-drying hooks; lamps in its small windows THE SLADE Beach Street House as the 1500s but it wasn’t until around the time of the Commonwealth The Gosse: NORTH END acted as beacons for fishermen, pre. 1660 Old name for DEAL that a settlement began to form. The shape of the town proves its close old name for Golden St 133 SS ‘Lillypad’ shelters, design possibly influenced by the area between 47a Nelson Street the area between North Promenade connection to the sea. Three longitudinal roads were threaded between Robert St New St A N D W A L M E R MAP Sandown Castle Arc Lane and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dentiform columns of 1936-9 existing buildings – and the first of many cross lanes and alleys added and Alfred Square St Georges Road, 98 Old store with a deep roof envelope and over- ISBN: 978-0-9565509-1-0 (E2D1) Britannia Rd College Road developed 1780s– that were to make up the town’s sinuous grid. It makes for a fascinating developed 1782– Inn sign 19 hanging window used as a lookout by smugglers, –1780 39-41 118 dense texture, a 17th-century town with a strong Flemish flavour and of 127 Middle St 6, 5, 8-9 Row cottages, all originally one-room deep, with Coastguard SS a remarkable homogeneity. building, 1890 Farrier St boxed-in kite-winder staircases and huge fireplaces c1690 Old rope walk, 1877 > Charles 17 Old fisherman’s cottage tilting at odd angles, c1670– Georgianization and buildings from later periods have altered its Coastguard Jolly frontage, Down Golden St, Hawtrey’s Early C19 houses/stables Duke St home 117 13 Barrel-chested front to cottage with a tall doorcase, morphology. But what has been lost is more than offset by the delights ND:CC NE:133 terrace Parking Beach Street Beach its colouring a touch ‘spitalfieldsey’ in character, 1680– that accrue from the juxtaposition of buildings of different periods and Horsa Rd Hoxton Market Canning Store 142 Sea wall 124 Most charmingly composed front to merchant’s styles. To this day the town retains the old street pattern and building 6 factory,1890 98 Smuggling 1982 house probably built at the old street level, –1769 plots. The grid was never modified nor areas completely ruined. Slums passage Middle St 122 Stiffly handled, English Renaissance house with were torn down, new buildings erected but none were too grand nor too Abel’s Coppin St 13 tiered bays and wooden cornices, for William Hulke, 1760 C C LUMGAIR big to alter the essential character of the place. With altitude, Congregational boatyard 17 Dibden Rd High Street NE:1 82 Grandiose Italianate courtyard to early house So what of the rest of the Deal? 124 AC 1882, by 120A Former Baptist chapel and Central Hall nestling at Well – the pier is certainly challenging, a splayed-legged concrete < Union Road Joseph 122 C19 terrace 82 Adelaide the original, much lower, street level, 1692–mid C19 structure with militaristic-looking shelters, but its new café shows that, SS Gardner Old Central Baths Suggestive of the Orient Rooms with a view NO VACANCES, Old music TH Unshowey town hall in yellow brick with columnated > Hall 1 hall FL Â NEUR G U I D E BUILDINGS IN DEAL AND WALMER with a bit of imagination, difficult structures can be given a new lease ND:39-41 NE:175-7 Beach Street NE:RE Nat Gubbins undercroft and simplified Serlian window, 1803. (114) 120A Brewerhome St 109 Old bond warehouse with cushioned fascia, –1802 MIDDLE DEAL (MD) JJB Modernist junction box, by James 83 Insurance North Wall Rd 1 Elaborate Regency doorcase with altitude, also –1802 Robb Scott’s team at Southern Region, Ark Lane 114 firemark, 1797 SG Queen Anne period church with octagonal cupola, 132 Court Lodge, a fine old Tudor 1938; the style influenced by Charles 1 Parking manse linked to St. Augustines Abbey, Holden’s work for London Transport Town Hall John Rennie’s 1716. By Samuel Simmons, assisted in the later stages Oak St featuring a wonderfully elaborate, SM Appropriate train-shed reference to Mostly C19 TH 112 Dunlin FountainBeach Street pier, 1838 by John James, one of the surveyors to the Church buildings Relic, stepped window moulding and a porch supermarket entrance canopy, 1998; Some late C18– & Diver Hotel Commissioners, the other being Hawksmoor.