This apartment has been in our family for about 35 years and was previously owned by the renowned British golfer, Nick Faldo. It has been a special privilege to live in such a unique environment with superb views and a delightful community. It is very quiet and secure so can either be a charming permanent home or an unusual weekend and holiday retreat. Although each of the 32 apartments are privately owned all the residents ‘own’ the overall property through Commonhold and are all directors of the holding company, Kingsgate Castle Residents Limited.
You can get to the quiet Kingsgate beach in a minute or two and it is not far to the Captain Digby if you want to enjoy an evening out without having to drive. For surfing enthusiasts the nearby Joss Bay is ideal and golfing aficionados can stroll round to the North Foreland Golf Club. Broadstairs is delightful Victorian seaside town with a mainline station where the fast train can whisk you to London in under an hour and a half. There are a wide variety of individual shops, bars and very good restaurants as well as annual events such as Folk Week, the Dickens Festival and the Food Fair. Another advantage of Broadstairs is that it has some very good private and grammar schools, while for a bit of retail therapy there is the nearby Westwood Cross shopping centre as well as a casino and the Vue cinema complex.
HISTORICAL NOTE:
Kingsgate Castle was originally built in the 1760s for the Whig politician Lord Holland as the stable block and staff quarters for his nearby estate and ‘holiday home’ Holland House. He bequeathed the estate, including Kingsgate Castle, to his favourite son, Charles James Fox, who was also a Whig MP for about 38 years and became Britain’s first Foreign Secretary. Although best known as a boon companion of the Prince Regent and a notorious womaniser and gambler who had to sell the estate to pay his gambling debts, Charles Fox was also an anti-slave campaigner and a leading parliamentary advocate for individual liberty and religious tolerance.
The estate, including the castle, was later owned by Sir John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury who brought in the Bank Holiday Act, and on his death it was bought by Lord Northcliffe owner of the Daily Mail, who transformed part of it into the North Foreland Golf course. In the 1920s Kingsgate Castle became a fashionable hotel with many illustrious visitors including British luminaries of the time such as John Mills, Peggy Ashcroft and Constance Cummings but it was eventually converted into unique and luxurious apartments.
Kingsgate Bay was originally called St Bartholomew’s Bay but Charles II landed there in 1683 with his brother, the then Duke of York, and ordered the name to be changed. Later it was also where the Prince Regent (George IV) sometimes disembarked when visiting his friend Charles Fox.