Margate Clock Tower, Margate, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Margate Clock Tower is a Victorian landmark on the seafront of Margate, Kent, built of Kentish ragstone to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Its best-known feature is a time ball on a mast at the top, which was once dropped at a set moment so that ships and onlookers could check their clocks.

The story behind it

The tower was planned to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, but it was not finished until 1889. It is faced in Kentish ragstone, a hard local stone, and stands where Margate's visitors have long arrived to enjoy the sea.

The time ball is what sets it apart. A large copper ball is raised to the top of a mast at the pinnacle of the tower and then released at a precise time. In the days before radio time signals, anyone at sea or looking from far along the shore could use it to set their clocks accurately. The mechanism was later restored by the Margate Civic Society, and the time ball was set working again in 2014.

What to look for

• Look up to the very top of the tower for the mast where the copper time ball is raised before it drops.
• Notice the Kentish ragstone of the walls, whose rough, grey, varied texture is typical of Kent's older buildings.
• Check the clock faces and compare the time with your own watch, which is exactly what the tower was built to help people do.
• Turn around to take in the seafront setting, with the sea on one side and the town's Victorian streets on the other.

Tips for your visit

• The tower is a street-side landmark, so you can admire it from outside at any time and a few minutes is enough for a good look.
• If you want to see the time ball in action, check locally for the current drop time and arrive a little early.
• It sits close to the harbour, the main sands and the Old Town, so it works well as one stop on a longer seafront walk.
• Turner Contemporary and the harbour arm are a short stroll away, which makes it easy to combine with other sights.

See it on a quest

You can reach the tower on foot as one stop of Historic Margate - Beach Boys and Bathing Belles: a Seaside Trail through Victorian Margate, a self-guided walk through the town's Victorian seaside past. The app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle on the spot, so you look closely at what is in front of you rather than just passing by. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no set departure time.