Prospect Cottage

[Pol]

Prospect Cottage is the Dungeness beach home of the late Derek Jarman (film maker). I think his patner still lives in the cottage actually, not 100% certain about that. There's a lot about it on the .net and I suspect the world and it's neighbour probably has photos of the cottage and garden. Artists often sit opposite and sketch the cottage and there's also a steady stream of tourists stopping to look at the cottage and garden (formed from the shingle and washed up wood etc from the beach)

Just a snap, nothing special, but I always think it looks so bright and cheerful on a sunny day when the flowers start blooming and covering the surroundings and matching the paintwork of the cottage.




Pol

[Stephen]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Prospect Cottage is the Dungeness beach home of the late Derek Jarman (film maker). I think his patner still lives in the cottage actually, not 100% certain about that. There's a lot about it on the .net and I suspect the world and it's neighbour probably has photos of the cottage and garden. Artists often sit opposite and sketch the cottage and there's also a steady stream of tourists stopping to look at the cottage and garden (formed from the shingle and washed up wood etc from the beach)

Just a snap, nothing special, but I always think it looks so bright and cheerful on a sunny day when the flowers start blooming and covering the surroundings and matching the paintwork of the cottage.




Pol

Nice one Pol, it certainly looks idyllic and in keeping with the beach and indigenous vegetation. I often wonder why these sort of cottages were painted black, when often coastal dwellings are painted white. What are the markings on the side of the building, they look almost like text?

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Nice one Pol, it certainly looks idyllic and in keeping with the beach and indigenous vegetation. I often wonder why these sort of cottages were painted black, when often coastal dwellings are painted white. What are the markings on the side of the building, they look almost like text?

The cottage is on the 'Dungeness Estate' - which is an assortment of old shacks scattered willy-nilly across an area of shingle immediately beside the Nuclear power station. It's also just across the road from that rusty old cog wheel I posted recently and that cog is beside a dilapidated tin hut full of old junk and nets + a rusty old fuel tank. I have pictures of those somewhere too.

Jarman's is the by far the best dwelling on the entire estate. He and his partner developed the garden to represent a sort of 'Nuclear Garden'... and I also suspect some of those upright lengths of driftwood are representative of phallic symbols (he was a gay film maker). The writing on the side is a poem which I believe was created from old wood. I sometimes see tourists walking across the garden to read it but I've never done so myself because his partner still lives inside and it seems a bit cheeky to my mind as it's his home! I took the snap from the expanse of shingle on the opposite side of the road.

It's situated close to that rubber covered shack too and not far from the other one I once posted with the 'guest room' (tatty old caravan) in front. They're the only two which are black iirc. The others are an assortment of natural wood chalets, rather like large garden sheds or old summerhouses, converted railway carriages and a few built half brick and wood. You have to see Dungeness to believe it.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if we crept onto the shingle and erected a shack overnight. Some of them have a ladder outside so they can get 'upstairs' to where they have another room in roof space. Most are also alongside the rickety tracks of the miniature RHDR railway .... and all of it in the shadow of the nuclear power station. Utterly fascinating!

If you google for Derek Jarman, Prospect Cottage or similar you'll find loads about it. You'll also find loads of other pix of the cottage and garden.


Pol

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

If you google for Derek Jarman, Prospect Cottage or similar you'll find loads about it. You'll also find loads of other pix of the cottage and garden.

Pol

There's info about Derek Jarman and 360 degree panos of the cottage and surroundings on a BBC page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/news/features/jarman.shtml

Hope it works. It seems to be a bit tempramental.

Pol

[jojo]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Fascinating Pol. When I read your first post, then scrolled down, I was really taken aback - the cottage was not what I had expected to see at all! Couldn't quite place Jarman at first but when I looked at the link I remembered seeing his film "Sebastiane" years ago. It certainly wouldn't be on everyone's list of "must see" films (too violent for me), but it was certainly ground-breaking in its day (mind you, it'd probably still cause a bit of a ruckus today!)

jo

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Fascinating Pol. When I read your first post, then scrolled down, I was really taken aback - the cottage was not what I had expected to see at all! Couldn't quite place Jarman at first but when I looked at the link I remembered seeing his film "Sebastiane" years ago. It certainly wouldn't be on everyone's list of "must see" films (too violent for me), but it was certainly ground-breaking in its day (mind you, it'd probably still cause a bit of a ruckus today!)

jo

I know what you mean, though he certainly seems to have quite a following judging by the number of visitors who flock to the area specifically to see the cottage and garden.

We can never quite grasp the fact that people pay so much for those shacks on the rare occasions they become available. One or two are available for letting too - always staggering prices. The residents are supplied with special pills in case there's a serious leak from the power station but I don't think they'd be much use if there was another Chernobyl down there.

I'm attaching one from opposite and a little way across the shingle showing the setting in a little more detail. My husband has better ones as he can bend and walk about better than me. Amazing place!

Pol

[jojo]

Re: Prospect Cottage

The residents are supplied with special pills in case there's a serious leak from the power station
Pol

Pills They've got to be 'avin a larf, (they'd have to be extra special pills indeed) I did think you were being very kind (or diplomatic) describing it as a "cottage"

jo

[Autumn]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Very attractive Pol. I have seen it several times from lecturers to our Photographic Society. As you say, it is an attraction to artists and photographers.

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Pills They've got to be 'avin a larf, (they'd have to be extra special pills indeed) I did think you were being very kind (or diplomatic) describing it as a "cottage"

jo

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Very attractive Pol. I have seen it several times from lecturers to our Photographic Society. As you say, it is an attraction to artists and photographers.

I'm sometimes tempted to stop and look at what artists and painters are producing there too. They just set themselves up on the shingle, easels or pads, then sit there for hours sketching or painting.

The chap still living there always seems pleasant too .... smiles and just carries on with what he's doing around the garden or the cottage.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

... and here's just one quick link to a flickr page with several pictures of the cottage, garden, poem on the wall etc. Lots of interesting shots there - many much better and more detailed than any of mine.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/prospectcottage/pool/

Pol

[mib2]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Hi Pol

Looks like a postcard & wonderful colour.

Cheers
Dave R

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

Pills They've got to be 'avin a larf, (they'd have to be extra special pills indeed)

jo

I finally found a link explaining about the pills.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/kent/4064681.stm

Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Prospect Cottage

It seems strange to me that people would choose to live there next to a nuclear power station, never mind paying such exhorbitant prices for a shanty! It looks a somewhat bleak area! Mind you, my choice of suburb is in a leafy, treelined avenue or somewhere with lots of trees etc!

[Pol]

Re: Prospect Cottage

It seems strange to me that people would choose to live there next to a nuclear power station, never mind paying such exhorbitant prices for a shanty! It looks a somewhat bleak area! Mind you, my choice of suburb is in a leafy, treelined avenue or somewhere with lots of trees etc!

It was, still is, a small community of fishermen who have lived there for generations. Not all the cottages are shacks as some were handed down through the fishing families.

The 'shacks' started to grow during the 1920s when there was a railway being built - then the power stn was built later but I forget exactly when.

Some of the early 20th Century workers pushed a few of the railway carriages off the tracks and lived in them when they were working there. The carriages gradually became integrated into 'shacks' with the carriage as the main structure and cladding + extensions were built onto them by their owners. I'm not sure when the 'London Trendies' locked onto the area and started snapping up some of the shacks and other homes for weekends and holidays. It's mainly the original fishing families who are there permanently.

It's also an important area for sea birds. It's on the Romney Marshes- and and also adjoining one of the largest UK reserves. There's an observation building next to the old lighthouse and that's where much of the UK bird counts and ringing occurs.

The area is indeed remote but also much loved by those who support the marshes and it's unique aspects. We live about 50 miles inland from there but we often go there precisely because its remote and relatively peaceful and quiet.


Pol