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Whitstable Harbour Watch (WHW) represents the views of the people of Whitstable.
Please click on any image for a closer view.

Steam Coaster, East Quay, C 1920

Ships at Harbour Entrance

Raven, postcard 1905

Harbour backwater (Gorrel Tank!)

West Quay, Thames Barges 1936

George & Eliza and Skylark
Painting: Building the Harbour
Building the Harbour 1832

Map of Harbour, 1872

Steam Packet and Tankerton Road
The harbour is one of the few visible links that Whitstable has with its interesting history, which includes diving, shipbuilding, ship owning, fishing and world-wide trade. The postcards above show some of the many types of vessel in the harbour. The connection with the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway was the reason for the harbour's construction in 1831, to bring heavy materials such as coal from Newcastle to Canterbury. Some claim that we had the first steam drawn, passenger railway in the world, certainly Whitstable Harbour was a very early railway harbour and quite possibly the first.
The map is from 1872, for a larger copy click here.