Photographs taken around Ramsgate town centre paint a bleak picture.

Argos, closed. Wilko, closed. New Look, closed. Plus many more who have tried and failed to make it here.

In fact, a staggering 65 units are empty - almost one in four, which is significantly higher than the national average of 14%.

More than half of its vacant shops are not even advertised for sale or rent.

Yet just a few miles along the coast, Ramsgate’s Thanet neighbours Margate and Broadstairs are revelling in newfound reputations as trendy destinations.

Folkestone and Deal are also riding a similar wave on the east Kent coast.

So why has Ramsgate missed the boat?

It has a history to at least match its rivals. King George IV was so enamoured with it that he declared it the country’s first and only Royal Harbour.

But as you walk through the present-day town centre, it hardly feels like the red carpet is being rolled out.

The opening of the Westwood Cross 19 years ago had a significant impact, with many big retailers ditching the high street for the new out-of-town shopping centre.

Plus the sheer size of Ramsgate town centre - built up from its previous holiday destination status, which has long since deserted it - means it is far more visibly hit than its neighbours. Margate's retail footprint is far smaller in comparison, as is Broadstairs’.

So those are the challenges - but what can be done about it?

Louise Brooks launched the Ramsgate Empty Shops Action Group in October last year. Its aim is to help businesses, councils and anyone else who might be interested in saving the area work together.

She told KentOnline: “Ramsgate’s got really good bones - it just needs a little bit of support to drive it forward.

“It's not about coming in and reinventing the wheel. It's about trying to pull together all those different strands of things that are already happening.

“One of the things we do need to look at for Ramsgate is what our anchor attractions are. For Margate, it was the Turner Contemporary and Dreamland. Folkestone has the harbour arm and the Creative Quarter.”

Right now, she says, Ramsgate is going through a transition period.

“It needs a little bit of life support while we establish some independents that are going to be sustainable because it's a tough time for businesses to start out,” Mrs Brooks said.

“You've had New Look, Argos, Wilko and the banks all go. You've just got these great big empty spaces in between these little independents that are trying to survive.”

It was only two years ago that Harbour Street was being celebrated as a booming location for new businesses. But charming independents such as Book Bodega later struggled, alongside national retailers.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious – the cost-of-living crisis, the rise in the use of online services, the aftermath of the pandemic and general deprivation in the surrounding area.

Neighbourhoods in and around the town centre are in the top 20% of the most deprived in the country, while crime is also a concern with Ramsgate previously branded “lawless”.

But it’s not all bad news.

The Royal Harbour remains popular thanks to its stunning beauty - as does the nearby Wetherspoon (the world’s biggest), which benefited from a £750,000 refurb this year.

Thanet District Council is set to inject a further £19.8 million of Levelling Up funding into the area - a move that would reopen the port and offer training and opportunities to residents through a “green campus”.

However, Mrs Brooks is not entirely sold on the premise of opening it back up as a trading port.

“I think it could serve a lot better as a tourist destination,” said the mum-of-two.

“You've seen it happen in lots of other ports around the world, where they've turned them into creative workspaces - you've got it to a smaller degree over in Whitstable.”

So the funding is coming for the port, but the empty shops in the high street remain a problem.

Photographer Caitlin Neaves has been following the fortunes of all retail premises across Thanet for the past year, with her images in Ramsgate gaining attention on social media.

Critics accuse her of intentionally making the town look bad. However, Miss Neaves stands by her decision to share pictures highlighting the issue.

She hopes her work can be a platform to instigate discussion and change.

“It's not very realistic to have all these pictures of these beautiful shop fronts and then all the dormant ones that everyone's ignoring just kind of slip to the back of people's minds,” said Miss Neaves.

“The reaction that I get is people saying ‘why would you focus on something so negative when everything else is already pretty rough?’.

“But I think that focusing on it means that people talk about it and then it sparks change - and I would love to see the shops full.”

Miss Neaves argues the town needs more community hubs, where people can go to develop skills and social connections.

“I think that Ramsgate should be as up-and-coming as Margate but it feels a lot of the money isn't being poured back into Thanet equally,” she said.

“We get a lot coming over Broadstairs and Margate way, but coming towards Ramsgate we don't get a lot of investment or funding to open up places.

“It has so much more potential than its counterparts – we're bigger, we have more space, there's more history.

“Ramsgate still is a historic harbour and a lot of our heritage lies in it being a maritime place.”

Labour MP Polly Billington is also trying to get units reopened in Ramsgate. She backs plans to give councils powers to take control of long-term empty properties and dish them out to businesses on a leasehold basis.

“There is so much energy and enthusiasm for the town centre and there has been some progress including the reinstatement of the market and the refurbishment of the Harbour Bar which has improved the look and feel of the high street,” she said.

“We’ve got to end the blight of boarded-up shops, so that we can get cash registers ringing again, more visitors pounding our pavements, and breathe a new lease of life into our struggling high streets.”

The MP says that for too long absent landlords had been allowed to sit on empty shops as they accrued value as property investments, without making a meaningful effort to market them for rent.

While Ramsgate is not one of the areas which will pilot the government’s High Street Rental Auction (HRSA) scheme, Ms Billington is pushing for it to be included in the near future.

The HRSA process begins with a notice period of up to 12 weeks followed by an auction period of a similar timeframe.

Premises are eligible when they have been left unoccupied continuously for 12 months, or 366 or more days on and off across a two-year period. Sites with redevelopment plans in place may not be included.

Mrs Brooks also welcomes the idea, adding: “It's really hard to set up a business on the high street. These rental auctions could be a real game-changer if we've got the right support to implement.

“We need people to be able to come in and test their business ideas in a low-risk environment so they can walk away and not be looking down the barrel at 20 grand or something in terms of losses.”

There has already been some movement in seeing new businesses take over sites – Ramsgate Community Centre in the former Cats in Crisis shop and Sugar Rush in the old WHSmith are two examples.

The return of the Friday market after a four-year hiatus has also brought people back into the town centre.

But, as Ramsgate’s MP says, there is clearly still “much more to do”.