Welcome to The Royal Harbour of Ramsgate 200 Anniversary Festival

During the past eighteen months we have all been through a crazy time of lockdowns, being confined to our homes, with nearly everything that we wanted to do being cancelled. Well, that time is now past, and we need to get life back to normal. The best way to do this is together as a community and make things happen again, as it all did before Covid arrived. What we are going to do is bring you all those events that we lost during 2020 into our three-day Festival.

Thanks to His Majesty King George IV back in 1821, we have a great reason to make this all happen. He visited Ramsgate in the Royal Yacht on September 25, 1821 on his way to visit Hanover. He returned on November 8 of the same year. The people of Ramsgate welcomed him so greatly and that impressed the King so much, that on his return to London decreed that from this day, November 27, 1821, that Ramsgate Harbour should be known as “Royal” - the Royal Harbour of Ramsgate. Even to this day it is the only Royal Harbour in the United Kingdom and because of this we may fly the Royal Standard of HM King George IV three times a year; January 29 (The Kings Accession to the throne), July 19 (his Coronation) and August 12 (his Birthday). We have done this for the past 25 years.

Another famous visitor was the artist Vincent van Gogh, who lived in Spencer Square and worked at 6 Royal Road. He loved Ramsgate, this can be seen in several of his letters to his brother Theo in 1876. In one of these letters he wrote; “If sometimes there are no people whom you can love enough, love the town you live in, as you certainly do, don’t I love Paris and London even though I’m a child of the pine-woods and of that beach at Ramsgate?”.

Our thanks go to all the many groups of Ramsgate that have made this Festival possible, plus three incredibly special people that we lost during the run up to the Festival; Our Festival Chaplain, the Rev. Gordon Warren; Our Festival Sculptor of HM King George IV, which will go up within a year, Dominic Grant; and Ramsgate Friend and Councillor Peter Campbell. You were all amazing people and this has been such a great loss to our town – Thank you.

All that remains is have lots of fun.

We dedicate the Royal Harbour of Ramsgate 200 Anniversary Festival to these three amazing Ramsgate Supporters and Residents.

Written by:
Festival Director, Ralph Hoult OBE
Festival Secretary, Barbara Sims
Festival Co-Director, Lt Cdr Kevin Martin
Town Promoter, Rebekah Smith