Oscars Festival Cafe
Oscars Festival Cafe opened by Graham Ward in May 2010 in the original cafe building in Oscar Road. Formerly famous in the sixties and seventies as a Sunday-lunch and slap-up eaterie was then refigured as Oscar Road cafe under the expert tenure of Marina Thomas and her dedicated staff. Hugely successful in its heyday, the cafe was closed for a period of around eighteen months. Graham worked for five months on the Dreamland Project in Margate before taking on the cafe, and utilizing the existing fittings and fixtures, gave the cafe interior a more stripped-down appearance. Sympathetic to the strengths as well as the shortcomings of the premises, Graham considered that the look and feel of the building very much lent itself to the recollection of a seaside cafe from a mid-century childhood, with memories of long days at the beach. The Festival-themed elements arose as a result of a long-standing interest in the 1951 Festival of Britain, in particular, the enduring appeal of Abram Games' striking symbol, which continues to strike a chord with those old enough to recall the Festival first-hand, as well as those to whom the 1950s is of more recent resonance. Thanet is an area rich in the recollection (and the collection) of the era, as evinced in its frequent vintage fairs and mid-century shops in Margate's Old-Town quarter. Shops such as Etcetera, dealing with mid-century decorative arts, and My Old Dutch, who trade specifically in the clothing and accessories of the 1950s period, are proof (if proof were needed) of the decade's enduring appeal for discerning new generation who continue to revel in the post-war period which Bevis Hillier archly coined 'The Austerity Binge'. It is to be hoped that there no wartime privations at the newly-configured Oscar Road Cafe; with sumptuous cakes by Jill Smith, the architect of all that is sweet and delicious at the Festival Cafe, a warm welcome awaits you.
