South East hidden gems: exploring and doing

From markets to indie boutiques to salvage yards, the South East is full of treasures for days spent browsing and buying. Hastings Old Town reveals its hidden charms on a pleasant weekend stroll, with cultural, arts and shopping events through the year. And for vintage and reclaimed gems, Margate and Ramsgate can’t be beat. Junk Deluxe in Margate is a treat for anyone interested in affordable modern design, collected, restored and sold in a ‘re-invented junk shop’ run by Benjamin Scott and Hayley Stevens. For the antique and the unusual, Scott’s Furniture Mart is legendary among Margate locals in the know.

Hastings Old Town: oldhastings.uk

Junk Deluxe: junkdeluxe.co.uk

Scott's Furniture Mart: www.scottsmargate.co.uk

Get there by train with Southeastern to Hastings, Margate and Ramsgate

Less than an hour from London, but on the Kent coast where you can see France just across the water, Folkestone is a busy town with a thriving art scene. Head downtown to the Creative Quarter and you’ll find artists’ studios, workshops, galleries and shops, supported by a passionate Creative Foundation. Around the town and on the seafront are public artworks big and small, including Tracey Emin’s ‘Baby Things’ – tiny sculptures of items of baby clothes, seemingly dropped and lost in unexpected places. 

www.creativequarterfolkestone.org.uk

Get there by train with Southeastern to Folkestone Central

Unlike the sleek Turner Contemporary and the hipster-vintage nostalgia of the renovated Dreamland fairground, one of Margate’s attractions has been unwilling to give away its secrets for years. The mysterious Shell Grotto is found below an unremarkable backstreet shop, but despite a plethora of theories, no one knows if it’s a Roman temple sacred to the mystical warriors of Mythras, a Templar shrine or a Victorian folly. Explore the tunnel complex with its intricate and perplexing shell mosaics and come up with a theory of your own.

shellgrotto.co.uk

Get there by train with Southeastern to Margate