The Isle of Thanet · Kent, UK
A real-scale recreation of the Isle of Thanet in Unreal Engine. Walk its seafronts, drive its streets, fly over its cliffs — and follow the build as it grows from landscape to living town.
The plan
The island is built in layers: first the ground people actually walk on, then the shops and interactions that make a town feel alive, then the insides of the buildings themselves.
How to read the bars: each one counts models that are finished and placed in the engine — right shape and right position, but not yet photoreal. Striped bars mean the full list of items hasn't been surveyed yet. A phase's percentage is the plain average of its tracked categories.
Phase 1 · In progress
The ground floor of the island: terrain, coastline and seafronts, every park and green space, the road and rail network, and the schools, churches and hospitals that anchor each town.
Average across 9 tracked categories · 6 more awaiting survey.
Each category counts equally.
75 parks and gardens are on the list. Each is built from surveys, aerial scans and photographs.
No master list exists yet for these, so their bars stay striped until one does.
Phase 2 · Up next
Every shop catalogued, its frontage modelled, and given something to do — what it sells, when it opens, and a reason to step inside.
No scored categories yet.
Each category counts equally.
Some high-street frontages already exist inside the hand-built town sets. This phase turns them into individual, interactive shops.
The playable Explorer build already supports these, ready for shops to plug into.
Phase 3 · Planned
Full interiors and exteriors for venues and for properties on the sales and lettings market, so anyone can explore them in 3D.
Average across 1 tracked category · 4 more awaiting survey.
Each category counts equally.
Straight from the engine
Work-in-progress renders captured directly from the engine. Lighting, materials and detail are still being refined.
Ramsgate Royal HarbourThe marina, harbour arms and seafront from above.
Ramsgate from the seaThe town and harbour seen from out in the bay.
Broadstairs from the seaCliffs, beaches and the bay with the town behind.
Ramsgate, street levelHand-modelled brick frontages.
Broadstairs High StreetPavement-level view of the terraces.
Royal Sands, RamsgateThe seafront apartment development.
Victoria Gardens, BroadstairsThe bandstand and its terraced amphitheatre from above.
The bandstandEye level at Victoria Gardens, with the cliff behind.
King George VI Memorial Park, RamsgateWoodland, lawns and the chalk cliff edge.
King George VI ParkThe glasshouse and its terrace.
Ellington Park, RamsgatePaths, planting and trees across the park.
Albion Place Gardens, RamsgateThe garden and the streets around it.
Winterstoke Gardens, RamsgateClifftop gardens above the beach.
QEQM Hospital, MargateThe hospital campus — exteriors only so far.
Broadstairs cliffsVictoria Gardens on top of the chalk cliffs and promenade.
Build log
Four more parks are placed — Winterstoke, King George VI, Pierremont and the Memorial Recreation Ground — making seven parks in the world.
The QEQM Hospital in Margate is in the world: 21 buildings plus the site ground, exteriors only.
Broadstairs, St Peter's and Westwood models are all placed, together with Victoria Gardens and the background town fill.
Railway work is staged for import: seven bridges are delivery-grade and a 71.5 km track network is built, but none of it is in the world yet.
Playable Explorer build: walk, drive a police car or fly as a seagull between 18 fast-travel destinations, with a live radio. Two full coast tours pass 106 checks each.
Broadstairs harbour clean-up: leftover placeholder buildings on the main jetty are removed.
The whole island's terrain is in: one landscape of 2,067 sections covering 13.3 × 9.7 km. Roads, coastline and background town blocks follow over the next days.
Victoria Gardens in Broadstairs is placed on top of the hand-built cliffs and walkways.
First Ramsgate milestone: harbour, seafront, parks and filler buildings in the world, and a walk test finds 98–100% of the ground walkable.
The Unreal Engine world is set up and the first hand-built Ramsgate harbour and seafront models are placed with zero placement error.
All five inventories exist: 75 parks, 84 churches, 65 school sites, 74 railway structures and 22 hospital building groups to model. Ellington Park, the pilot, is finished.
Parallel projects start: models of Thanet's parks, churches, schools, railway bridges and the QEQM Hospital begin with research and data gathering.
How it's made
Everything starts from real-world data — surveys, aerial laser scans and open maps — then is modelled and placed to sit exactly where it does in life.