Following on from last year’s two sell out events at the Margate Bookie festival, our tour of funny local Margate history (with a literary twist) is back for 2025. The Mysterious Historian will lead an early evening tour from the Turner Contemporary and finishing at The Shakespeare pub.

Some of the stories along the way will cover artistic legends who grace Margate’s history books such as Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, David Bowie, Peter Sellers, TS Eliot, JMW Turner and cover witty and suprising tales of Margate’s Pleasure Gardens, secret wine cellars and lover’s hideaways … and how Margate has been a haven for several LGBTQ+ and intellectual groups for centuries.

The tour content will have a slight flavour of the late 1800s, due to that era's surprisingly innovative and exotic time in Margate’s history, so this year it will be – The Mysterious Historian… turns Victorian.

Day and weekend passes

You can save up to 25% by purchasing a day or weekend pass, giving you access to all Big Weekend events at the Turner and Margate Week events at the Margate School on 11-12 October. Find out more and book.