The Westcoast Margate History

The Westcoast Bar & Venue Margate is a unique building. It has 4 bars spread over 2 floors, ground floor and basement. Three of these bars have the facility to operate individually or they can operate as one whole unit. Born from the mind of Eli Thompson. this building has been developing and improving year on year.

Now in its 8th year forever changing and adapting to the needs of the local social scene that exists in the area.

October 2002 (year one) saw the building substantially derelict. Minor improvements were made to the harbour facing entrance Fort Hill (formerly the Dugout), and the adjacent function room (some would remember this as the original Westcoast). This particular part of the building opened its doors in February 2003 as Bar Mezz and without the advantage of an entertainments license offered the facility up as a private function space and caribbean restaurant.

By September 2003 work started on the second phase of improvements to what was a totally derelict part of the building ground floor facing onto King St.

Qubar was completed in December 2003 and gave Thanet its first DJ Style bar. Crazy as it may sound but Margate at this time had nothing like this type of bar. A modern stylish Lounge bar with DJ facilities playing a trendy mix of lounge music, which included our love of Jazz, Funk, Soul & Funky House. Micky B, Robbie Styles, Nick Logan and the occasional visit by Mr personality himself 'Eli' kept a loyal crowd enthused for 3 years It was well received and inspired a series of other bars. Unfortunately some of the other bars did not last long. Ultimately their could only be one Qubar.

With an entertainments license granted February 2004 (11.30pm) whoopee, further improvements were made to the basement main venue, mostly superficial decorating etc. Work continued through to mid 2005 whilst links were made with Mark, Ollie & Penny who created the Moon On A Stick live band nights on Thursdays, these nights added to the diverse weekly schedule of the Qubar brand and were a great success. The dance and live band nights were building nicely, time for the next phase.

Back to the beginning, christmas 2005 over and Eli decided to totally refurbished Bar Mezz tearing the guts out of it and starting again. This was done by the helpful hand of the clubs patrons friendships we forged and a new club was born. Bar Mezz became a lounge style boudoir with Dj facilities to work with the main room either as a second room or chillout area. Hedkandi, Money Pennys, Judge Jules were just a few to grace the venue with their presence. The venue was making waves in Thanet now under the name of Sugar Lounge, daring to do what no-one else had done for many years. Margate was talked about once again. Who said 'Nothing ever happens in Margate'

In 2007 Eli went one further and created Sugarlive 07 a music festival that encompassed everything that the venue offered. Utilising as many venues in Margate as he could hoping to unify the dissapated bar, club, cafe and art gallery scene (even if it was only for one day).

We have since been concentrating on building our reputation as a live music venue and to date we have managed to and are still working towards doing just that. The Westcoast has a small team of dedicated promoters technicians and musicians that collectively keep the spirit of Margate alive. The business is forever re shaping itself to adapt to the dips, highs and lows of the trade. We are fortunate enough to be able to diversify and offer different things in order to try and stay afloat.

Gig 4, Steve D.I.Y, DTF Promotions, Pete Feenstra, Andy Holliday are the team behind the making of this venue and are all dedicted to supporting live music in all its forms.

The Old town of Margate has a substantial regeneration budget attached to it and we as a business are based right in the middle of the ongoing regeneration plans. The long term vision is to provide this block where we are located with two additional outlets which will help to create an artistic quarter and provide a route for people to explore different ambiences and moods. The Higher end bars and eating places are already at this end of town although few in number.

Onwards and upwards from hereon in.

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