Market Street, Deal, looking east from Middle Street

Market Street

The picture above shows Market Street as it looks today - little changed for a century or more.  It was taken from the junction with Middle Street, looking east towards the sea front.

No, you're not seeing things: the streets in Deal really do go up from the town centre to the sea front!  They really are this narrow, too, in places.   Market Street, like most of the roads leading from the sea front, is only just wide enough for one car to get through.

The shop on the corner (left foreground) was once run by June's grandmother as an ice-cream shop.  The picture below shows the shop more clearly.

This used to be the ice cream shop on the corner of Market Street and Middle Street

The brown double-fronted building centre right used to be a Sunday School.  The house with the bricked-up windows is now the take-away part of an Indian Restaurant.

Market Street (south side)

Below is the view looking north from the same vantage point, along Middle Street.

Middle Street, Deal, looking north from Market Street

The building on the left at the curve of the road used to be St. George's School.   Like all schools of that time, there were separate sections for boys and girls.   Past this on the left is the entrance to St. George's Passage, leading to the High Street and St George's church..

St George's Passage looking east from the High Street

All photos on this site copyright Bill Beer 1999. 

You are free to use these pictures to illustrate your own family history as long as you acknowledge the copyright.

Timeball Tower, Deal

Timeball Tower

Once a signalling station for providing time signals to shipping, the Timeball Tower on Deal sea front is now a museum.

The area where the tower stands was once a naval shipyard, building and repairing ships of the line.  The tower was originally fitted with semaphore arms to signal to ships in the Downs, but these were later replaced with the ball.

At a few minutes before 1pm every day, the ball would be hoisted to the top of the pole on the roof.  At 1pm precisely, a telegraph signal from Greenwich would release the ball, which would fall under the influence of gravity.  This signal would allow ships in the Downs to set their chronometers accurately before embarking on voyages around the world.

The ball (a light-weight replica of the original) is now raised and dropped from inside the tower at various times during the day when the museum is open during the summer.