Margate 18.09.2018
From traditional holiday-town charm, a world-class art gallery, sandy beaches, a cool café culture and tempting retro shops. Margate – ‘The Original Seaside’, is waiting to welcome you!
I got to visit Margate as part of my project for UCA. I had only been a handful of times with family, but never got to fully explore what Margate had to offer. I now had my own time to discover Margate and had a great time doing so. I love all the small vintage shops throughout the lanes, Dreamland and getting to look around the Turner Contemporary at the exhibitions and art pieces they were holding there. I captured some lovely photos aswell and am very proud of those.
Dreamland
The Dreamland site was a salt marsh known as the Mere that was inundated at high tide until 1809 when a causeway and seawall were built. In 1870, circus entrepreneur George Sanger went into partnership to run the ‘Hall by the Sea’ with Thomas Dalby Reeve, the then Mayor of Margate.
I first visited Dreamland soon after it re-opened ub 2015. The park was grand and there was arcades and a roller-rink; it looked so retro. The rides were classic and the atmosphere was lovely. When I visited Margate again for the trip, I unfortunately didn’t get to enter the park. The atmosphere was different this time. An empty park and arcade area are quite haunting and I felt like I had missed out; it wasnt like the time I had visited in Summer.
The first amusement rides were installed as early as 1880 when ‘Sea on Land’ machines were installed. Passengers sat in ‘boats’ that were made by a system of levers to pitch and roll as though at sea – a direct antecedent of the contemporary ‘flight simulator’ rides. In 1893 a large skating rink was built. The number of amusements at the park increased during the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1981 the site was sold to the Dutch Bembom brothers, who renamed it “Bembom Brothers White Knuckle Theme Park”. The name remained until it reverted to Dreamland in 1990.
There were still some pretty sights though. Vintage-looking cartoon characters and big, brighly lit bulbs were throughout the arcade area. I made sure I got some photos while I could.
Animals And Us Animals & Us is a major exhibition exploring artists’ reflections on the relationship between humans and other animals. I got to see several astonishing pieces of work revolving around animals, as well as our connection with them. The background behind some of these pieces are very intriuing and are greatly represented by the artists through their pieces. For example, Laura Ford’s piece, labelled ‘A King’s Appetite’ tells the story of King George IV, who was overcome with wealth and greed. He was gifted a giraffe that was not properly cared for and died an untimely death, with George following soon after. Ford dressed the giraffe in Georgian clothes from the time era and has it sprawled across the floor, which looks rather upsetting and overall, unatural for a creature that lives in the wild.
Other pieces I had seen include portraits of several dogs. At first glance, these look like quite normal images of dogs; however, these images look quite haunting. When finding out information about these pieces, I had found out that these dogs were all search dogs during the 9/11 terror attack. When we think about the relationships between animals and humans, especially dogs, we know that we work as allies and they have helped us greatly. I think these images represent one of the many examples. The image above of the chimp was work done by Stephanie Quayle, labelled ‘The Narrow Abyss’. She has done several clay sculptures of chimps, that are placed around the room. These pieces are here to represent how these animals are humankind’s closest relatives, and how similar we are. All of the pieces that I was able to view were outstanding and their stories behind them were just as outstanding and so informative. I’m glad I got to see these pieces for myself.
Here are are a range of images that I took and edited during my time in Margate. Just by walking around, i got to capture so many cool shots. In my opinion, Margate is a piece of art in itself. Gorgeous pieces can be found on brick walls as you walk down the lanes and some unique places can be found if you search. For example, there’s a place where you can buy used fairground ride carriages, displays and lots of other quirky things; maybe i’ll go back to get something for myself.
Overall, I believe my trip to Margate was a big success. I discovered some wonderful places and captured some great photos. Even editing the photos from the trip was a success. I got to experiment with editing using Adobe Lightroom and I believe I created some effective photos. I especially love the very saturated, brightly coloured images.