The first time I went to Littlestone-On-Sea I parked the car, got out and got right back in. I drove 10 minutes from Dungeness, where giant-sized skies are shingled with alien-like plants and designer cottages, and strange dry gardens feel like a glimpse into a possible future (one in which we might all be gardening). on the Moon).
Considering this incredible view, Littlestone was the ultimate anti-climax. Gray waves crashed against the steep shelf stones, and along the road behind were a jumble of dreary plains and crumbling houses.
This was to be a major disappointment for Sir Robert Perks, the 19th-century politician and property developer who had hoped to turn the tiny village into a health resort in the 1880s. Progress was slow and perhaps hampered because his partner, Henry Tubbs, owner of the local golf club (and builder of the red-brick water tower that still stands proudly as the tallest thing on the skyline) was a staunch supporter of the temperance movement. .
As the gray skies clear over Littlestone, thoughts inevitably turn to alcohol; however, he ensured that visiting golfers did not indulge in alcohol. Even so, Bright Young Things has finally arrived. During the interwar years they built a number of large holiday homes near Tubbs’ golf club. But cheap flights soon arrived and Littlestone faded into obscurity once again.
Some of these houses survive beyond the striped beach huts of the village, where the main road ends towards Hythe. The handful I pass on the seashore, cheerfully singing Frank Sinatra songs from behind a rainbow-colored laundry cape, appear to be slowly falling into disrepair. Others dotted around the grass-sided paths next to the golf club are now the definition of respectability; The facades are freshly painted and Union Jacks fly from the flagpoles.
And now there are signs that Littlestone may soon get another moment in the sun. Since my last visit, modern mansions with cedar cladding and floor-to-ceiling glass have been sprouting among the old ones. Meanwhile, Harry Cragoe, the hotelier behind the hugely successful Gallivant hotel in Camber Sands (B&B, doubles from £165), will open a Littlestone outpost in 2024.
He picked a winner with the building. The hotel was originally designed by Portmeirion’s architect, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, as a holiday home for a woman named Margaret Bray. “He got mixed up in some really interesting circles. “She was truly an avant-garde woman,” says Cragoe. Legend has it that Noel Coward and members of the Astor family remained, but actual evidence is very slim.
Standing at a 45-degree angle to the sea, as if to differentiate itself from the other buildings on the coastline, the façade is literally Gatsby-like, although a little faded. But while the revelers in this novel party hard on Long Island, all those in Littlestone can hope for now is takeaway curry or fish and chips on the concrete sea wall. Even coffee seems impossible to find (unless you count the takeaway Costa machine in the local Spar).
Cragoe’s challenge will be to ensure that visitors in the upstairs bedrooms, where on clear days the view stretches to France, do not want to travel so many miles and cross the Channel. With that in mind, there will be a Bamford spa, a wood-fired sauna for a post-swim warm-up, a dry garden larger than those at Dungeness and a wine list full of English treasures. “Our plan with Littlestone is to bring back the glamor. It was clearly once a very popular holiday destination, especially for Londoners,” he says.
The golf course, once Littlestone’s most desirable spot, is also still in contention. “If you’re a golfer, Alister MacKenzie is like the Nash of golf designers. “He designed Cypress Point and the Augusta course where the Masters was played,” says Cragoe. “After the war he came here to redesign the Club at Littlestone, because the whole area was being used by the military for training and the golf course was in shambles. “It means there’s a deep connection to good golf courses. Littlestone has a great history too, although that legacy may be slightly overshadowed by Rye Golf Course.”
If anyone can change Littlestone’s fate, Cragoe can do it too. He did much to improve the appeal of his other hotel, Camber Sands. “My friends are definitely [deluded] buy it. “It was a rundown roadside motel that was busy with families for two months and was empty the rest of the time.”
“With a lot of hard work, a lot of money and a real vision of what we wanted to do, we think we’ve created something pretty special. For us, Littlestone is the next logical step. Because it’s much more exciting as a blank canvas […] “You have a really beautiful structure in the most remarkable place.”
His timing is also very correct. Along the promenade, a handful of glass-cut cyclists, reminiscent of London’s canal-side pedalers, ring their bells to get pedestrians out of their way, signaling that weekenders in the town have already arrived. A 10-minute walk from Cragoe’s building towards St Mary’s Bay will take you to Cabu by the Sea, a collection of luxury cottages popular with savvy couples and families. There is another surprise when the water recedes: beyond the pebbles, sand waves that will seduce those who smell the tiles.
As for me, on my second visit to Littlestone the sun shone, turning the water into straws and sending the great bulk of the distant Dungeness power station into misty relief. The empty beach could never be called beautiful, but it was refreshingly dramatic under the intense blue of the cloudless sky. I walked back to the beach car park and stopped at the Spar along the way for a latte. Then I sat on the promenade and toasted to a brighter future.