Margate. Sandy.

A glorious seaside bench here, for your delectation. Situated in a grand Victorian (?) shelter at the Western end of Margate beach, the somewhat faded overall glory of its location doesn’t take away from this being a quality seating area.

The benches are well maintained, presumably by the local council — despite some minor graffiti, they are mostly freshly painted and in relatively good nick, considering that they may well be in the region of 100 years old (or more). The decking around them is also well maintained, though inevitably sand from the beautiful beach forms drifts as it blows up during stormy days.

With the exception of the curved benches seen at either side of this picture, these benches are divided into individual seats, which lends a certain amount of privacy even in such a communal seating area. (Though it also, regrettably, hinders those who might wish to lie on these benches — my experience of Margate is that a fairly substantial number of people might want to use them for that purpose)

One of the main perks of these benches is their overhead shelter, which makes sitting and looking at the ocean an option, on even the rainiest of days. (This day was gloriously sunny but bitingly cold). The seats themselves are of sturdy and comfortable construction, being neither too deep or too shallow, and with comfortable curves on the armrests and fronts of the seats. (The armrests also look great, with those cute, quirky ends).

The minty green, creamy light yellow and dark red colour palette is also very pleasing, in a ‘retro british charm’ kind of way. Not many things make me patriotic, but a good seaside bench is probably one of them.

I only photographed the sunny side of these benches, but the also extend around the other side of the shelter, to overlook the beautiful Margate beach directly.

Comfort of bench: 7/10
Capacity of bench: Probably 50 or more if you use both sides
View from bench: 9/10, seaside!
Accessibility of bench: Reasonable, if I recall correctly there was ramp access to these benches
Adventure level: Low — very near the train station and only a couple of hours outside London