Tracey Emin´s Home: Shoreditch-on-Sea
- Series: CREATIVE QUARTERS RUHR
It might be tatty, poor and isolated, but Margate is becoming East London’s artistic Riviera.
Tracey Emin described her home town of Margate in her memoir Strangeland as a “derelict seaside town” with “nothing to do but blend in with the general decay ... and wish your life away”. And it’s still a pretty rough place. She said:
“If you want a dirty weekend, go to Margate. You can be as dirty as you like. Van Gogh and Turner, Ronnie Biggs and the Krays all went there ... Margate – the nub of the Isle of Thanet, thrusting like a bent forefinger from the crazed knuckle of England. Planet Thanet, also known as the Last Resort.”
But the city has a fantastic artistic heritage. JMW Turner, the British public’s most famous painter, was a regular visitor who said “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”. This is the hook they’ve hung the new £17m gallery on, Turner Contemporary, which has been designed by David Chipperfield, It sits where the guest house run by Mrs Booth, JMW Turner’s landlady and lover, right on the coast.
And a little further down the coast, a battered old amusement park, Dreamland is being given nearly £4 million by the government to develop itself as a ‘heritage’ amusement park. It has the Scenic Railway as its centerpiece, the oldest roller coaster in the UK. It also has the creepy Shell grotto, a large network of caves covered in sea shells.
There have been some less expensive projects too. The Windows of Opportunity Project in 2009 gave artists 3 week residencies in disused shops. Margate has the highest vacancy rates for its shops in the country, and the project fills these spaces and makes the high street look less derelict. The Harbour Arm has been painted with colours sourced from Turner’s paintings (see the header image). There's also a great kite festival (above).
Some commentators – like the Financial Times – have been skeptical about the town’s chances of a revival, noting that the regional art galleries have hardly spurred the artistic renaissance they promised. As they say “can Margate, a small, working-class town suffering far higher unemployment than the average across south-east England, and in decline for a century, really become an art world player?”
That’s unlikely. But Margate does have a lot going for it. Emin, Dreamland, Turner, and 26 miles of beautiful coastline, 15 sandy beaches and only an hour and a half from London. It’s cheap enough to attract artists who are being pushed out of London because of high prices.
It will never be the next Paris, but it could become Shoreditch-on-Sea.
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Hometown of Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin described her home town of Margate in her memoir Strangeland as a “derelict seaside town” with “nothing to do but blend in with the general decay ... and wish your life away”. And it’s still a pretty rough place. She said:
“If you want a dirty weekend, go to Margate. You can be as dirty as you like. Van Gogh and Turner, Ronnie Biggs and the Krays all went there ... Margate – the nub of the Isle of Thanet, thrusting like a bent forefinger from the crazed knuckle of England. Planet Thanet, also known as the Last Resort.”
And JMW Turner
But the city has a fantastic artistic heritage. JMW Turner, the British public’s most famous painter, was a regular visitor who said “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”. This is the hook they’ve hung the new £17m gallery on, Turner Contemporary, which has been designed by David Chipperfield, It sits where the guest house run by Mrs Booth, JMW Turner’s landlady and lover, right on the coast.
And a little further down the coast, a battered old amusement park, Dreamland is being given nearly £4 million by the government to develop itself as a ‘heritage’ amusement park. It has the Scenic Railway as its centerpiece, the oldest roller coaster in the UK. It also has the creepy Shell grotto, a large network of caves covered in sea shells. There have been some less expensive projects too. The Windows of Opportunity Project in 2009 gave artists 3 week residencies in disused shops. Margate has the highest vacancy rates for its shops in the country, and the project fills these spaces and makes the high street look less derelict. The Harbour Arm has been painted with colours sourced from Turner’s paintings (see the header image). There's also a great kite festival (above).
Some commentators – like the Financial Times – have been skeptical about the town’s chances of a revival, noting that the regional art galleries have hardly spurred the artistic renaissance they promised. As they say “can Margate, a small, working-class town suffering far higher unemployment than the average across south-east England, and in decline for a century, really become an art world player?”
That’s unlikely. But Margate does have a lot going for it. Emin, Dreamland, Turner, and 26 miles of beautiful coastline, 15 sandy beaches and only an hour and a half from London. It’s cheap enough to attract artists who are being pushed out of London because of high prices.
It will never be the next Paris, but it could become Shoreditch-on-Sea.
Related videos:
Related blogs:
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Sat, 09.04.2011
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