In the Old House
Inside Margate's Tudor House
The Tudor House is one of the Margate’s oldest buildings, dating back to the first half of the sixteenth century. Its form is that of a ‘transitional house’ – bridging the gap between the medieval open-hall and early-modern houses with two storeys throughout. The building was clearly of high status with distinctly ‘showy’ features. Many of these were advanced for its time, including glazed windows and two chimneys at a time when one would have been noteworthy.
During the seventeenth century, the house was the centre of an estate extending up to the cliff top where the current Winter Gardens are sited. A 1776 map shows a sizable farmyard surrounding the dwelling; including a malthouse which still exists to the rear.
Between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, much of the land belonging to the house was sold off; and the building itself had been subdivided into 3 cottages by 1867.
The remaining site was purchased by the council in the late 1930s as part of a slum clearance scheme. However, the importance of the building was recognised after the Second World War and the house was carefully restored in the 1950s. The building today contains much original fabric, together with some noteworthy additions from later periods, such as the ornate plaster ceiling dating from the start of the Stuarts.
[Visit Thanet website]
In the Old House
Inside Margate's Tudor House
The Tudor House is one of the Margate’s oldest buildings, dating back to the first half of the sixteenth century. Its form is that of a ‘transitional house’ – bridging the gap between the medieval open-hall and early-modern houses with two storeys throughout. The building was clearly of high status with distinctly ‘showy’ features. Many of these were advanced for its time, including glazed windows and two chimneys at a time when one would have been noteworthy.
During the seventeenth century, the house was the centre of an estate extending up to the cliff top where the current Winter Gardens are sited. A 1776 map shows a sizable farmyard surrounding the dwelling; including a malthouse which still exists to the rear.
Between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, much of the land belonging to the house was sold off; and the building itself had been subdivided into 3 cottages by 1867.
The remaining site was purchased by the council in the late 1930s as part of a slum clearance scheme. However, the importance of the building was recognised after the Second World War and the house was carefully restored in the 1950s. The building today contains much original fabric, together with some noteworthy additions from later periods, such as the ornate plaster ceiling dating from the start of the Stuarts.
[Visit Thanet website]