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Deal
Deal lies on the south coast, as close to France as you can get and on a clear day you can just about make out its coastline. While thousands of travellers, everyday pour in and out of Dover ferry terminal to travel to France and the continent; Deal quietly goes about its daily life, ignored by the many. In a way, this is a good thing because the compact town would never cope with so many in its narrow streets. Deal is but eight miles from Dover and around fourteen from Kent’s most popular tourist city, Canterbury.
It might not look like it now but Deal used to be an important maritime town in the days of wooden sailing ships and iron men. It used to be a thriving port and was said to rank with ports such as Rochester, Portsmouth and Plymouth but no sign of that today, apart from the castle which was built to protect the ships at anchor offshore. There is a very good website about the history of deal and I suggest you visit it if you’d like to know more about this old naval town, visit
Deal musuem
What I like about Deal, is that it is small and perfectly formed. Its main shopping street is the High Street, which for most part is a pedestrian precinct. This runs parallel with Beach Street, which runs along the front. However, squeezed between the two roads is a much narrower road called appropriately Middle Street. It is here and in the adjacent streets where the real character of Deal can be found, with its colourful cottages haphazardly crammed together, dating back to three and four hundred years but what you don’t see are the numerous cellars and tunnels, once used for smuggling which lie under the houses and streets.
Apart from the delightful architecture of these dwellings; what is so lovely about these streets, is the lack of traffic. The cars are not banned but they just don't seem to bother coming down the narrow streets and so it is very peaceful.
The thing about Deal, is that it is very easy-going. There are no hills and no difficulty getting around, in fact the only taxing thing might be walking from the promanade to the sea because the beach is shingle. Admittedly, it is not be the best place to swim as the beach slopes steeply and once in the sea, you are soon in deep water. Having said that, kids love throwing stones in the water and trying to dodge the waves as they sweep in and out.
Deal has a pier and at the end a small cafe which is soon to be renovated and modernised. Some of the most frequent visitors to the pier are anglers who love to spend their hours casting the line in and pulling it out again but I'm sure they do catch things.
On the promanade is a fresh seafood stall and across the road are cafes, bars and restaurants, and if you wander round enough, you'll find a wonderful fish & chip shop but be prepared to queue.
Deal is only a small town and you can walk from one end of the shopping area to the other in less than ten minutes but if you want to stretch your legs, you can walk along the seafront past the pristine castles of Deal and Walmer, and past the every ready lifeboat house to some really nice pubs in Kingsdown, a couple of miles down the coast. If you are more ambitious you can walk all the way along the cliffs to Dover, where its imposing castle dominates the town.
I am currently gathering a list of good
Pubs/bars,
Accommodation,
Restaurants,
Shops,
and places to visit in the area. You can also find out more from
http://www.dealkent.co.uk/
and
About Deal
One other thing to mention about Deal, if you love golf, there are many excellent links golf courses in the vacinity including
Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club
on the door step and
Royal St Georges Golf Club
, a few miles along the coast.
If you are looking for a bit of peace and quiet, and refreshing sea air, Deal is the place to come but don't tell everyone, we don't want it too busy!
If you want to see more photographs of Deal, visit
my photo library
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