The name`s Bond - from the back of beyond
13-May-2006 • Bond News
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For years, the east coast of Kent was The Land that Trains Forgot, a swathe of chalky grasslands and small, seaside towns where commuters only went when they overslept and missed their stop.
Now, though, after years of neglect, the Fat Controller has chosen to smile upon this poorly served patch of south-east England. Come the end of 2009, the trains here will no longer operate on the principle of rolling slowly downhill from London, but will be powered instead by engines capable of 140mph. All of a sudden, East Kent will become commutable and therefore desirable in property terms.
Oddly enough, the only person who seems to have fancied this area in the past is James Bond. For while 007 operated mainly in such exotic spots as Martinique and Monte Carlo, some of his most dangerous missions were carried out along the East Kent coast. Yes, the area between Dover, Deal and Sandwich is where Commander Bond came to grips with two of his deadliest enemies: Sir Hugo Drax (in Moonraker) and the sinister Auric Goldfinger (in Goldfinger).
While never exactly a state secret, the role of East Kent in the war against mad, evil geniuses has been highlighted recently by the increasing popularity of a James Bond Trail, encouraging tourists to visit the real-life settings for those epic espionage encounters. And, as well as boosting visitor numbers throughout the area, the Bond Trail has drawn attention to the hidden property potential of the area.
"It's because it takes two hours to get to London by rail that property prices here have always been behind the market," says former Londoner Peter Killin, owner of The Smugglers pub at idyllic St Margaret's Bay, just up the coast from Dover. "If the train companies manage to cut that time in half, as they say they will, then this area will see a big increase in prices and a big influx of commuters.
"In one way, I welcome that, but in another, I worry that it will change the atmosphere here. I have three kids (13, 12 and 10), and they've had a wonderful, old-fashioned upbringing here - on the beach every day, riding horses. I came here in 1977 to help build the hoverport terminal at Dover, and most people who buy a place here tend to stay. But if East Kent becomes commutable, there'll be a lot more coming and going; until now, this place has been a bit of a secret."
According to plans announced by Southeastern Trains, from the beginning of December 2009, new, high-speed Hitachi trains will operate along the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from coastal Folkestone to inland Ashford and on to a new terminal at London St Pancras. "We haven't finally calculated how long it will take to get from Folkestone to Ashford, or how many stops there will be on the way," says a Southeastern spokesman. "Nor do we know yet if the Hitachi trains will be able to operate from Dover, because we're not yet sure if the Shakespeare Tunnels (linking Dover and Folkestone) will be able to take high-speed trains.
"What we do know, though, is that once trains get to Ashford, the journey time to London will be reduced from 83 to 36 minutes. And with Hitachi trains also operating between Canterbury West and St Pancras, we can predict a similar reduction in journey times on that route, too."
Instead, then, of the maddeningly slow trundle that passengers experience at present, there should be a pleasing blur of passing Kent countryside.
All of a sudden, places such as Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Sandwich and Deal will become not just seaside holiday destinations, but viable residential locations for working people who want to get to town and back in a day - and still have time to take the dog for a walk when they get home.
'In the past, people have rather lumped together places on the East Kent coast," says Simon Backhouse, of estate agency Strutt and Parker's Canterbury office. "But with the prospect of those coastal places becoming commutable, people will start to see them as more than just that big mass of towns that are another good hour down the line from Gravesend and Rochester."
Of course, when that happens, it will be a lot harder finding a two-bedroom flat in Broadstairs for £118,995 (sea view £165,000), as you can at the moment; or a two-bedroom house in Deal for £165,000 (period townhouse £195,000).
Mind you, a lot of East Kent-dwellers prize this part of the world not for its closeness to London, but to France. "For £50 return, we can take the Eurotunnel to Calais for the evening, fill up the car with a tank of cheap petrol, buy some bottles of cheap booze, eat at a lovely restaurant and be back home in bed by midnight," says Simon Backhouse. "It's absolutely marvellous."
Plenty of homeowners don't even have to stir from their sofas in order to get the Gallic atmosphere. "At night, you can see the lights all twinkling away on the other side of the Channel," says St Margaret's resident Joan Moss, who moved to East Kent eight years ago. Now, she's selling her modern, clifftop house, the dramatically glass-fronted and equally dramatically named Moonraker, thought to be a nod to Bond's creator Ian Fleming, who for many years lived on the beach below, in a house called White Cliffs, which he bought from Noël Coward in 1952.
It's a matter of some local pride that St Margaret's is the nearest place in Britain to the Continent, barely 18 miles from Calais. During the next five years, it's fair to say, that distance isn't likely to alter, but over the same period, it could well be that London is going to get a lot closer.
On the James Bond trail
Pett Bottom
Appropriately named hamlet just south of Canterbury, where the future ladies' man Bond was brought up by his Aunt Charmian (his parents were killed in a climbing accident when he was 11). His creator, Ian Fleming, wrote the penultimate Bond book You Only Live Twice in the beer garden of Pett Bottom's only pub, The Duck Inn.
St Margaret's at Cliffe
Fleming and his wife, Anna, lived at White Cliffs, a house on the beach. In Moonraker, Bond and his female companion, Gala Brand, survive a chalk landslide engineered by the evil Sir Hugo Drax, on the clifftops next to his house, beside current-day Kingsdown Golf Club. The pair recover with a warm bath and Welsh rarebit at The Granville Hotel, in St Margaret's (now flats).
Sandwich
Bond and the villainous Auric Goldfinger (right) play a round of golf (for a US$10,000 wager at Royal St George's Golf Club (where Fleming was a member). In the book, the course is called Royal St Mark's, and the resident golf professional Alfred Blacking (in real life, it was Alfred Whiting). Naturally, Goldfinger tries to cheat.
Dover
In Moonraker, Bond refers to Dover's "wonderful cardboard castle" (it really does look like a cut-out against the sky). His night drive takes him past Swingate radar station, just north of town, where he notes "the ruby spangled masts rising like petrified Roman candles on his right" (they're still there).
Deal
When escaping from Drax, Bond and Gala Brand skirt round the Royal Marine Garrison's firing range.
Manston
It's just an RAF base in Goldfinger, but today it's Kent International Airport.
Ramsgate
Used by Goldfinger for his comings and goings. "Quiet little port", says Bond. "Customs and police who were probably only on the look-out for brandy from France."
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