The Scoop

Leas Lift restoration

Closed since 2016 because of health and safety issues, the historic Leas Lift – one of the oldest water-balanced funicular railway lifts in the UK – is inching closer to restoration and reopening. Having received £350,000 in development funding from the National Lottery, another £400,000 needs to be raised by May 2023. “If we reach this target, then we can apply for £3.5 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the delivery phase of the project,” says James Walker-Osborn, who is on the board of the Folkestone Leas Lift Company, set up to restore the 1885, Grade II listed structure.

The good news is that around 40% of the £400,000 target is already in the bag. In September the Folkestone Leas Lift Company launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise £70,000 from the public. Rewards for pledges include limited-edition prints and the chance to have your name engraved on a brass plaque attached to one of the lift’s new sleepers. “The goodwill from the community has been phenomenal,” says Luke Duffy, who has been working on the Lift Company’s appeals committee. A fund-raising comedy evening at the Leas Cliff Hall is planned for 2023, and money is also coming in from sales at the Leas Lift Café and the Leas Lift Lockout Escape Room on Sandgate Road.

leaslift.co.uk leasliftlockout.co.uk

Folkestone Documentary Festival

“It’s a chance to watch and discuss real stories from volcanoes to Bowie to BDSM,” says Charlie Phillips, one of the organisers of the Folkestone Documentary Festival which runs from 21 to 23 October. The festival opens with the brilliantly strange Fire of Love, about a pair of volcanologists who were also lovers. Included in the programme are Moonage Daydream, a kaleidoscopic new film about David Bowie; Sirens, about the Middle East’s first all-female heavy metal band; and Rebel Dread, about Don Letts, the legendary music producer, DJ and video-maker, a screening which is co-organised with Origins Untold and which will be followed by the festival’s communal meal.

“There’s also guest programming by Melanie Iredale, director of Birds Eye View, who has selected two films by or about women and non-binary people; and from Stone Club, a Cornish collective dedicated to connecting us all more closely with our shared experience of the land,” adds Phillips. Screenings and industry masterclasses will take place at the Quarterhouse and Silver Screen Cinema.

folkestonedocumentaryfestival.co.uk @folkestonedocfest

Folkestone StoryMap

Dotted around town, in locations such as the Leas Lift Café and at the top of the Zig Zag Path, are QR code plaques for the Folkestone StoryMap – a collection of fictional stories, written by people with a connection to Folkestone, anchored to landmarks within the town. Using the QR codes, you can listen to them in situ or online via their website which has a map displaying their exact locations, along with what3words tags. The winner of their 2022 competition to extend the StoryMap up to Radnor Cliff is Louise Peregrina with Time and Motion, about HG Wells.

Folkestone-born Peregrina’s debut novel Gramps and the Shield Bugs, which she began writing during the 2021 lockdown, was published in early October and is aimed at 10 to 13-year-olds. “It’s a heart-warming book about hope and the potential for change, trying to understand why people behave as they do, and the importance of taking the time to listen to each other,” says Peregrina, who asked local artist and blues singer Katie Bradley to illustrate the cover for her.

Walking With Ghosts

Between 11 and 14 November, along the old station platform at Folkestone Harbour Arm, an exciting new and immersive multimedia artwork will be premiered. Walking With Ghosts explores the legacy of war in Folkestone and how conflict in general has shaped both the town and those who live here. The project, which is a partnership with the Imperial War Museum’s 14-18 NOW Legacy scheme, is managed by Professors Helen Brooks and Mark Connelly, both of whom work at the University of Kent. It includes the artistic work of award-winning composer Thom Robson, projection artist Howard Griffin and filmmaker Ross Barnwell. Meanwhile at Fourth Wall Gallery on the Old High Street artist Billie Penfold of Thread and Word will be leading a programme of “walk-shops” combining poetry, rope-making and walking. Contributions gathered from Folkestonians, including quotes from their stories and anecdotes about past and current conflicts, have been built into the soundscape that will play continuously for 84 hours at the Harbour Arm. “Folkestone is absolutely pivotal to the legacy of war,” says Brooks. “It’s a port from where soldiers departed and where they came back to, and it’s still being impacted by the arrival of refugees from current conflicts.”

gatewayspartnership.org.uk/case-studies/walkingwith-ghosts

Living Advent Calendar

One of Folkestone’s most beloved annual performing arts festivals – the Living Advent Calendar (LAC) – is returning to doorways and spaces around town from 1 to 24 December. “Each night is a surprise as the audience doesn’t know what they are going to get,” says Sue Blakesley, a founding member of JimJam Arts, producers of the LAC. Along with fellow founder Sadie Hurley and assistant project manager Marin Karakaya, the JimJam team promise to be back bigger and better than ever – quite the challenge since past LAC events have ranged from the Saconni Quartet playing at the Fish Market, to an abseiling Gurkha dressed as Santa. “We’re also spreading the love around town,” says Blakesley, with a couple of this year’s locations being in Cherition. And, as in the past, all the 24 events are free, which makes it the ideal way for everyone to come together and celebrate the Christmas season.