The Eighteenth Century

This century saw Margate transformed from a sleepy fishing village into a prosperous seaside resort, which attracted fashionable visitors from London. Some came to the town with illnesses and hoped that the clean air and the new practice of sea bathing would provide them with a cure.

The new prosperity was marked by the building of Cecil and Hawley Squares and the establishing of assembly rooms, pleasure gardens and bathing rooms.

St. John's was faced with an influx of visiting worshippers and as a result galleries were added. There was also high sided "horse box" pews in the nave. The crowded congregation would have focused on a three decker pulpit.

The atmosphere must have been very claustrophobic at the height of the season as the capacity was recorded as 1600 people.

The Church has an unusually large collection of memorial tablets and hatchments, which date from this period.The hatchments arc the painted coats of arms which hang from the roof in the side aisles. Hatchments were carried in the funeral processions of the gentry.

The internal walls also have many monumental tablets commemorating similar families. Well-known local names such as Boys, Brookes, Cobb, Dering, Staines and Taddy appear on these monuments.

The peal of bells was increased from six to eight in 1787. However, until recent years there was a public house near to the Church called the Six Bells and it would appear that the name was not altered when the number of bells was increased!