ABSTRACT
An intense storm and related surge in the North Sea in 1953 breached sea defences in The Netherlands and also along the E coast of England. The day after the surge, a landslide occurred in the coastal grounds of the Miramar Hotel in the village of Beltinge, somewhat east of Herne Bay. The paper describes the weather patterns of that event, the nature of the storm surge, and the context of the ‘Miramar Landslide’. It is likely that the weather-induced surge caused rapid coastal erosion at the toe of a slope that was already only marginally stable. This, and other possibilities, are discussed.
