Turner Contemporary: Did art transform ‘no-go zone’ Margate?
For those of us struggling with an agenda for small towns, this tale of revival linked to Ronnie Bigg’s favourite seaside retreat is inspirational. It tells us:
Margate’s £17.5m art gallery Turner Contemporary opened in 2011 with hopes it would spearhead the regeneration of one of the most deprived parts of the UK. Since then the gallery has had several hit shows and is hosting this year’s Turner Prize. But how much has it changed the surrounding town?
Tracey Emin grew up in Margate in the 1970s, when the north Kent resort was still attracting crowds of holidaymakers to its “golden mile” of sand, jellied eels, buckets and spades and Kiss Me Quick hats.
But by the 1980s the town had become a “no-go zone”, she recalls.
As visitors found other destinations abroad, Margate – like other seaside resorts – had fallen into sharp decline.
At its lowest ebb, it was an unloved town of boarded-up shops, deserted trains, empty streets and derelict arcades. Its theme park had closed and it was home to some of the poorest communities in the country.
Emin has never wavered in her passionate support for her hometown, believing in its beauty, its sunsets and skies. These famously also inspired the Romantic artist JMW Turner, after whom both the Turner Prize and the Turner Contemporary are named.
he brand new glass-clad Turner Contemporary opened its doors eight years ago on the seafront site of a cottage where JMW Turner had stayed.
Emin predicted visitors would discover a “different, edgy, sexy” town.
Since those first visitors arrived, the town has undergone a transformation.
The theme park Dreamland has reopened, the quaint streets of the Old Town have filled up with quirky cafes, stylish restaurants and vintage shops, and across the town, galleries, studios and cottage industries have opened.
Rambling old houses have become desirable again and even the gardens have been smartened up.
Now Margate makes the news for its hipsters, its London cool and celebrity residents, such as The Libertines frontman Pete Doherty.