Let's move to Margate, Kent | Money | The Guardian

Let's move to Margate, Kent | Money | The Guardian

What's going for it? Margate's had more facelifts than Joan Rivers. Remember that Apprentice episode when they tried to turn it into a gay paradise? So not going to happen. The latest nip and tuck unveils itself in April – the Turner Contemporary art gallery, designed to turn Margate into the Bilbao of Thanet. People are always trying to return it to its glory days, but the place stubbornly resists. Tracey Emin's relationship with the town perfectly captures its bittersweet flavour (more bitter than sweet). It reeks of faded glory, but there is beauty here: the light from the north-west-facing beach that drew Turner; walks along the cliffs to Broadstairs; the pretty old town; the eccentric Shell Grotto; the glory of Dreamland. Will this revamp work? Probably not. Not that it matters: somehow wistful, often savage, deflation is the town's genius loci.