Friday 4 June 2010

May 201o: Prospect Cottage and beach shed. Dungerness. Kent.






As much as I love London, sometimes I need to go for a long drive and get away, clear the head and see something different. Dungerness is certainly different and about as far removed from the centre of London as you can get. An endless shingle beach lined with derelict beach sheds and quaint wooden cottages are all overlooked by the ever imposing nuclear power station. Guglielmo Marconi, best known as the ‘man who invented radio, used a structure on the beach for research and development in the transmitting of radio signals – and in 1899 he became the first person to send a message across the English Channel.

The most famous resident was the author Derek Jarman who built the black tarred timber Prospect Cottage which has raised wooden text on one side taken from the John Donne’s poem, The Sun Rising. The shingle cottage-garden famous in it’s own right has been the subject of many books and photographs. An interesting house and well worth a visit. Dungerness is a popular location for photo shoots and tv programmes, the light and scenery are amazing, but a visit to Dungerness wouldn’t be complete without a fish and chip lunch in the Britannia pub.

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