In the months leading up to the opening of Margate's Winter Gardens in 1911, an article in the Daily Telegraph described the town's position as "one of the leading health and pleasure resorts in the South of England" as "unchallenged and unchallengeable".

How times change.

When the ribbon was cut by the town's mayor on the seafront venue, the same newspaper said it was a move by a "progressive" local authority, determined to ensure Margate's grip on the public's imagination stretched outside of the summer months.

The Winter Gardens was to provide, as the name suggests, a smorgasbord of entertainment to keep the visitors coming during the chilly season.

The town, prized for its fresh air, architecture and accommodation, was putting a key cog into its local economy

Today, the Winter Gardens stands as something of a cultural monument to a by-gone era.

Once host to the likes of everyone from The Beatles to Blur and Laurel & Hardy to Morecambe & Wise, even its more ardent admirers can’t fail to see it looking tired and rather behind the times.

So when it was revealed earlier this year that all bookings were to be suspended after August 2022, the rumour mill was cranked to the maximum.

Everything from the land being sold by the site's owner, Thanet District Council, and redeveloped for housing, to the venue simply being mothballed and allowed to fall into further disrepair, were touted as possible outcomes.

Cllr Reece Pugh, the local authority's deputy leader and cabinet member for economic development, is clear on one thing.

"I can say categorically it won't be sold for housing," he explains. "That just won't happen; not under this administration or any other.

"My day job is in property and development and I can tell you although residents may think that's what will happen, it's not safe to build a structure that close to the sea and in the cliffs. But even if it was, that's not something this council would ever entertain as a possibility."

So will the cash-strapped authority look to sell it off and cash in?

"It's not our primary goal," says Mark Perris, the authority's director of property. "We've ruled nothing out, but all our energy and focus is going on saving the building; the council retaining ownership and getting an operator in there."

Here's the crunch, though, it will be closing after August 2022.

Adds Mark Perris: "Let's be clear. It will close for a period of time as there's a lot of work to do to get it back to a standard where you can operate.

"That's inevitable to secure its long-term future. But we are going to be without it for a period of time.

“We don't want to set the expectation that there won't be inconvenience around this because there will be some, but it's all for the greater good. We want it there for our grandkids and their kids to enjoy as well."

He estimates its doors will remain closed for around a year.

It would not, however - given the complexities of working around a sprawling seafront, Grade II-listed site, and the traditional vagaries related to significant building work - be a complete surprise were that to be longer.

But, and this is significant for those fearing the loss of one of east Kent's premier cultural spots, all the authority's focus, it insists, is on retaining it as an entertainment venue and safeguarding its future.

Adds Cllr Pugh: “I think there's scope for it to be more than it is now and diversify. It's a fantastic space and that space needs to be used as much as possible throughout the year.”

The only thing which is certain, however, is that whatever guise it takes going forward, significant funds are going to be needed to be invested. Once reopened, it’s also got to be making money.

And you'd think there should be no reason for it not to. After all, it is one of the largest indoor venues in the county. Capable of holding around 2,000 fans for a standing show or 1,400 seated in its main arena, there’s a second space, the Queen’s Hall, which can accommodate 600. Visitors can sit in the bar and overlook the sea. While its position, sat low in the cliffs - part of the condition of its original construction so as to not block the sea views for nearby homes - makes it a landmark, albeit one in need of some TLC and landscaping.

Big names continue to flock too. Over the last 12 months alone, the likes of Paul Weller, The Libertines, Jason Donovan, Jimmy Carr and Katherine Ryan have taken to its stage.

But perhaps just as importantly, it has become a valuable community hub - for school performances and awards nights, for tea-dances and election counts. It has become deeply entrenched in the town's social tapestry.

Yet in at least the last four years, it has recorded an annual deficit running into six figures.

Yes, things had been slowly improving but Covid pulled the rug from under its feet. The reality is that it was generating revenues of around £1.3m in the years prior to lockdown but losing anything between £105,000-275,000 in the process.

The financial year ending March 2021 saw the lockdown leave it with losses of £300,000.

Thanet District Council, for its part, leases the management of the venue to Your Leisure - a non-profit (which in the case of the Winter Gardens is handy) organisation which also runs the district's leisure centres.

Its current contract to manage the Winter Gardens runs until 2025. However, it seems almost certain there will be a mutual agreement to bring that to a close next August.

Explains Mr Perris: "We're working together to try and come up with the best outcome for the venue. If that means it's a different operator at some point in the future, then so be it.

"That lease [with Your Leisure] does run beyond the summer. It's not official what will happen, but if it's decided to bring it to a close earlier, it will be done in partnership with them. We're both working together to get the best for the Winter Gardens, and that's our sole aim at the moment."

For all the politically-sensitive phrasing, it seems hard to see Your Leisure’s contract continuing beyond next summer.

Quite where that will leave Your Leisure as an operation remains to be seen. It's rolling deal to manage Margate's Theatre Royal ceases at the end of April 2022. It failed to respond to our efforts to speak to them directly on the issues when approached.

However, for all the positive talk for the future of the Winter Gardens - and the authority does genuinely seem committed to ensuring its long-term security and success - quite what direction it will move in hangs on the outcome of a major piece of research soon to be carried out. It is linked to a major bid for money made to Whitehall which saw the town awarded more than £22m. And the division of that cash has infuriated locals even more - accusing the authority of turning its back on public-owned entertainment assets and, instead, favouring privately-run venues such as Dreamland.

So just what is the situation?

Wind back the clock to December 2020, and Thanet District Council was sending off its bid to secure a hoped for £29m from the government's Towns Fund - a cash pot designed to help successful bidders "foster economic regeneration, stimulate investment and deliver vital infrastructure".

In the Budget, delivered in March, Margate was confirmed as one of those towns set to benefit. It hadn't gained all the money it wanted - but it had secured £22.2m.

Locals, however, were quick to point out that while the renovation of Dreamland's cinema was to get £4m, the Winter Gardens seemed to have been ignored.

"We had some conditions attached to our offer," explains Louise Askew, director of regeneration at Thanet District Council, who had put the funding bid together.

"One related to the Winter Gardens. The government was really keen to see what our plan was, as we had an allocation of £4m for the venue. It was at that point, talking to the Town Deal board, the cabinet, corporate management team and our specialist consultants we'd brought in, we realised that our plan needed some clarity as to what the future was for the Winter Gardens.

"What we didn't have then was a clear thought of if we invest this £4m this is what it will look like, this is what other investment we can have and this is what it will deliver in terms of outcome for Margate.

"So the decision was taken, as we had to cut some funding out of that £29m, that what we would actually ask for - and take a risk asking for - was some revenue funding. The Town Deal is primarily capital."

In other words, rather than money to build and develop, it was cash to pursue a future vision for the venue.

Adds the regeneration chief: "So we got an agreement from the government and an allocation of £300,000 attached to the Winter Gardens.

"That's about putting a plan together for the future. To identify what that sustainable future for the theatre looks like. It will be about what the art of the possible in that building.”

And that's going to be extensive. Special heritage-accredited architects are set to be summoned to examine the buildings potential and limitations. Market research will be carried out too to see what the people of Margate, Thanet, east Kent and the whole county, want from the venue.

"Then we'll go to the marketplace and identify operators,” she adds, “and what different operators might want to deliver in a building like this."

Quite who those new operators might be remains to be seen. But the potential for a re-imagined, modernised Winter Gardens to fit alongside the likes of Dreamland and the Turner Contemporary as the town's trump cultural cards must surely be attractive to many.

After all, the equation is simple - pull in the punters through your cultural offerings and the whole local economy benefits as those visitors eat, drink, sleep and spend in the town for the duration of their stays.

But why did Dreamland seem to get preferential treatment over a community asset?

"Central government absolutely wanted the private sector sat round the table and expected this funding to leverage in private investment," explains Louise Askew. "They didn't want it to be about public money chasing public money.

"Dreamland had a plan for the cinema building and this money is about unlocking and leveraging further investment; £4m by no means will do it all.

"The investment is on the back of an existing plan. Which we didn't have for the Winter Gardens."

Quite why a clear plan hadn't been identified when bidding for such sums is, perhaps, a question for another day.

For now though, the laborious process of finalising the paperwork to access the funds is hoped to be completed this side of Christmas. Covid permitting, funds could be released in the new year. Then, as councils are obliged to do, a procurement process will begin to find those who can conduct the detailed feasibility study. It will also deliver the all-important costs involved.

No-one expects it to be cheap. Quite aside from maintaining a 110-year-old building, constantly being battered by the salt winds whipping off the North Sea just yards from its windows, there are known to be significant issues with the boilers on the site.

"I can't put a number on that as it's all part of the work we're doing," the director of regeneration explains. "It's difficult, when buildings are listed, to know if you can knock some walls down, or how you might change it to make better use. Not all of it flows particularly well; sometimes it's difficult to use the spaces independently. All of that will be taken into consideration. I can't sit here and hazard a guess as to what that will cost. It also depends on what that end-use might be, and who the operator is."

And that remains the key question. That operator, that vision, will determine the future of the Winter Gardens.

What is a certainty, however, is that the council cannot afford to carry an asset which haemorrhages cash and costs the taxpayer.

Adds Mr Perris: "Sustainability is key, otherwise we'll be back in this position and having this exact same conversation again in three or four years. It has to deliver a financial return.

"The way local government finances are, the council will struggle to support it itself.

"The community does care about it, and I'm sure they'll support it.

"All our energy is going into saving this and we'll do all we can to make that happen. There's a real will to deliver on this."

When the Winter Gardens first opened all those years ago, the district was wealthy - fuelled by a visitor economy which was the envy of the entire South East. Creating the venue was an outlay which delivered an almost guaranteed return.

Since then, however, our holiday habits have changed in ways barely conceivable back then. The boom in cheap flights abroad saw the money which had elevated Margate to such a pinnacle fly into the distance.

Reduced to a shadow of its former self, it has picked itself up and dusted itself down. The Turner Contemporary pulls in thousands of visitors and helped fuel the transformation of the Old Town.

At the other end of its broad Main Sands sits Dreamland - once a council-owned site but sold to its operators after they masterminded its revival and invested heavily into transforming it into an entertainment complex, capable of staging live music - inside and out - in addition to its rollercoaster rides.

It would be tempting to suggest the Winter Gardens could be destined to follow in its footsteps. But, in truth, if the Winter Gardens can sculpt a future for itself under the wing of an experienced and sophisticated operator, then few will argue if it means it is secure and delivering on the very purpose it was first built - to pull in the crowds to spend in the town.