Plaque on a house in Middle Street, Deal

Image: © Marathon Taken: 8 Dec 2022

This is on a house in Middle Street in Deal. It is all part of the Middle Street Deal Conservation Area, which in 1968 was the first Conservation Area in Kent to be designated. Its distinctive character is typified by the central axis of mainly Georgian terraced houses clustered around Middle Street and extending up to High Street or Beach Street. The press gang operated around these streets and smugglers' hiding places are still being found in local houses. The streets once thronged with soldiers, sailors and fishermen. Almost every building was either a pub, a lodging house or a brothel. As it was the boatmen's area, the street was crowded with pilots, net-makers, sail-makers, rope-makers and boatbuilders. Most of the numerous pubs have closed but many of the old inns survive as private houses and bear the original pub names - the Deal Cutter and the Scarborough Cat for example.

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