The Whitstable Whistler Autumn 2021

Autumn 2021 FREE Modern-day Seaside Stories

WHITSTABLE WHISTLER

3

A BUMPER CROP

HEAVEN IS A HALFPIPE

THE BOY AND THE MERMAID

Meet the local farmers and foodies making nutrition their mission

How a skate academy is transforming young people’s lives and futures

Immerse yourself in the tale of our fabled Street

Three Rooms

Ivan Seal David Brian Smith Sebastian Stöhrer 9 October - 28 November 2021

CARL FREEDMAN GALLERY 28 UNION CRESCENT MARGATE

Ivan Seal (2020)

3

whitstable whistler

Contents

Editorial

Editor Cheri Percy

Acting editor-in-chief

3

John Murphy

Founder & Publisher

4 The Scoop – business news and birthdays in the Bubble

5 Written in Stone – columnist Christopher Stone catches up with old friends, Alan and Sharon

Clare Freeman

Co-founder & Advertising director

7 The Hotlist – from pumpkin picking to the Witches

Jen Brammer

8 Howling belles – how one local salon’s award-

of Whitstable’s bi-annual gathering

Publishing assistant

Welcome to our autumn issue!

Emilia Fuller

Design director Lizzy Tweedale

Contributors

Writers Bess Browning Glyn Brown Duarte Figueira Katerina Kolyva Tony Mardon Rebecca Martin Jay McAllister Jenni Moore Amie O’Connor Poole Fay Schopen Annie Taylor Julie Wassmer Robert Weiss

From the Editor

know they say you shouldn’t have favourites but of all the seasons, autumn is a real special one, isn’t it? Stick with me, sunshinedeprived naysayers. A Sunday afternoon spent braving the bramble branches to come home with a heavy haul and rustle up a hearty crumble and custard is a Sunday well spent.

And nature lines up a spectacle of a light show for us as the leaves of those bushes (and trees alike) begin to turn from dark green to umbers and ochres like the flames of the fires we can finally light again.

In this issue, we’ve tried to tap into some of that seasonal magic.

Thespian Tony Mardon recounts his early memories of late actor and OBE Peter Cushing and why his starring supernatural roles in the Hammer horror films had such an impact on his career. Elsewhere, we continue to wade through the magical realms as local artist and illustrator Annie Taylor shares an oft-told Whitstable tail. And inspired

by Taylor’s central character, Rebecca Martin encourages us all to brave the elements and channel our inner mermaid with a sunrise dip. (Trust us!)

Without saying the C-word (in early September at the time I write this), we serve up some local gift guide options for all year round. Our harvestthemed homages to regenerative farm Rosewood Acres and Wasted Kitchen’s five-mile principles reap the bounty of the season. Something wreath makers Box and Bloom know all about as Nancy Hamling helps us craft stunning door-hanging showstoppers from foraged foliage.

To kick us off though, our cover story channels all the fresh scents of back to school as we shine a floodlight on the transformative work FAR Skate Academy is doing with our young people.

You see, there’s so much to get behind in this next russetcoloured phase of the year, so here’s hoping this issue helps you fall hard for the season too. (I told you I was a fan, what can I say?)

Issue three

regulator

Cheri Percy

Photographers

Sam Burch Millie Clinton Lyndon Douglas Sam Grady Andrew Hayes-Watkins Jean-François de Kriek

Illustrators Alex Lee Jess Roberts Jade Spranklen

cover image Chloe Silk, FAR Skate Academy student on the Tankerton slopes.

By Sam Grady

Print Mortons Print ♻ We print on recycled paper

Contact

I

Autumn 2021 – September to November

winning hair products are transforming our sea salt-frazzled hair

9 Couch surfing – position your helplessness as an opportunity to ask for help, says our seaside sage

10 Our house in the middle of our street – Katerina Kolyva paints a picture of the local art scene ahead of this year’s annual Artists’ Open Houses

13 Heaven is a halfpipe – Jenni Moore hears from

FAR Skate CEO Brent Lewis on how the charity is transforming the lives of young people

17 Hammer horror – thespian Tony Mardon

recounts his memories of late British actor and OBE Peter Cushing

20 Gift guide – we’re not uttering the C-word yet but it’s always good to be prepared. And shop local

22 A Whitstable tail – gather round as Annie Taylor

tells her fabled origin story of Whitstable’s Street

23 Shore thing – speaking of mermaids, Rebecca

Martin is all for sunrise dips and shares how you can brave the waves all year round

25 A bumper crop – meet the local farmers and

foodies making the community’s nutrition their mission

28 In full bloom – wreath makers Box and Bloom

shows us how to craft door-hanging showstoppers with your own foraged foliage

31 Game changer – local writing gem Julie

Wassmer explains how Tankerton FC is tackling accessibility within the sport

32 The comedy comeback – Bess Browing speaks

to returning comedy kind Oliver Double about his Funny Rabbit Comedy Club

34 Toast of the town – foolhardy folk musician

Beans on Toast reflects on the magic behind his new record

35 The reading list – Beans on Toast musician

opens up about the books on his bedside for an autumnal reading list

37 Beer necessities – in her continued quest to

try all the sauvignon blancs in Whitstable, Whitstable Blonde holes up at down-home local the Fountain for a few

38 Meet the maker – Duarte Figueira meets local

Website

creative Lyndon Douglas to discuss his latest work and its influence from the Empire Windrush

brightsidepublishing. com

sister publications

Social Media @whitstablewhistler

Advertising and distribution enquiries info@brightside publishing.com

Published by Brightside Publishing Ltd © All rights reserved Copyright 2021

We are regulated by IMPRESS. If you wish to make a complaint about anything that appears in the Whitstable Whistler, please visit the website brightsidepublishing.com/ contact

Margate Mercury

Ramsgate Recorder

Broadstairs Deal Beacon Despatch

4

Whitstable whistler

EVENTS

Take to Tankerton for culinary deli-ghts at Land & Sea It’s been the talk of Tankerton since our last issue landed but restaurant and delicatessen Land & Sea has brought some very welcome seasonal fine dining to our coastline. From Sunday morning Bloody Bens (Marys) to weekday lunching, the deli is open Monday to Sunday while restaurant bookings are taken Thursday and Friday, 12-3 and 6-9pm and 12-9pm all day on Saturday.

Alongside the sumptuous spreads, you’ll also find local artists adorning its walls and the serene scents of the Whitstable Candle Company throughout the dining space. Don’t forget to stop off at neighbouring coffee shop Kafeine too, who will also serve you up a delicious slice of rhubarb and custard cake if you’ve still got room!

IG: @itsfromlandandsea

Wine and dine at Thirty Nine Family-run restaurant and exhibition space Thirty Nine opened its doors at the end of August, welcoming us in for its signature small plates, everything from smoked mackerel pâté, smoked salmon and pickled cucumber, and homemade hummus with flatbread. In between feasting, you can take in the venue’s current exhibition from local artist Michael Hutchinson. He revels in landscapes and seascapes of East Kent and beyond. And stay tuned for their moreish brunch menu available from September. IG: @thirtynine_whitstable

The Workers’ League opens its first Kent coast location in Whitstable Remote working starting to wear thin? Lucky for you, a new co-working space has opened just a stone’s throw from the seashore on Albert Street.

Formerly a well-known pizzeria, the Workers’ League now offers two spacious floors filled with plenty of natural light. The space can happily welcome up to 60 people with a mix of private offices, bookable desks and cosy break-out sofa areas. The Kent coast location is the fifth site in the company’s arsenal, with clubs already active in London’s Shoreditch and Blackheath Village.

With day rates from as little as £15, head to the Workers’ League website to book a free trial day at workersleague.com/locations/whitstable IG: @workersleague

Artist celebrates the life of Whitstable son and scribe William Somerset Maugham

Continue BBQ season with Street Kings Smoke Shack Speaking of new openings on Oxford Street, Ashford’s infamous BBQ restaurant Street Kings Smoke Shack has opened a second site opposite beloved bakery, Grain & Hearth. The eatery prides itself on serving Kent-based meat and produce using a combination of oak and hickory kilndried wood. Owners Tony de Sousa and Makalla McPherson originally found a permanent home for their smoke shack last year at Coachworks in Ashford, but the new site finally gives them roots in Whitstable where the couple has lived for four years.

With the embers slowly fading from summer, Street Kings means it’s still possible to get your BBQ fix, even without the sunshine haze. @IG streetkingssmokeshack

Whitstable-based portrait artist Ben Dickson has completed work on his large-scale mural celebrating the life of one of our town’s most famous sons, William Somerset Maugham.

Supported by Whitlit and other local businesses, the piece can be viewed on the side of Parry Law Solicitors on Oxford Street. Maugham, a literary genius who grew up in Whitstable, was worldfamous as an author of books, essays, plays, and films in the first half of the 20th century. The mural celebrates 100 years since the publication of his most famous work The Moon and Sixpence.

Read more about Dickson’s work as Katerina Kolyva speaks to him on page 10 as part of our homage to this year’s Artists’ Open Houses.

big bubble birthdays The Lindley Players turns 75 Whitstable’s Playhouse Theatre is entirely member-run and owned and is the home of amateur theatre group The Lindley Players, who celebrate a mighty 75 years in 2021. But while the group has evolved over the years, their focus and ethos of producing high-quality theatre remain. From hard-edged drama to their annual pantomime slot planned for early next year, their shows have been keeping our town rapt for over seven decades. And they’re always looking for new members if you fancy being part of the next generation of thespians and theatre buffs here in the Bubble. IG: @playhousewhitstable

Flow&Co turns 8 Who needs the London look when we’ve got the connoisseurs of the cut at Flow&Co here by the seaside? Owned and run by Mariano Ruiz, Flow&Co offers fabulous feathering and beautiful balayage, all in a calm and stylish setting. Ruiz and his talented team bring bags of experience, having worked at leading London salon Charles Worthington providing the glitz and glam to the stars of the West End and the Royal Opera House. And who said you couldn’t bottle up the salon experience? Flo&Co has even launched its sister brand SheWolf so you can look hair-mazing from home too. Read more about Ruiz’s award-winning products as he has a brush with writer Fay Schopen on page 8.

IG: @flowandcohair

Harbour Street Tapas turns 5 A welcome haven for locals and tourists alike, Harbour Street Tapas has been serving up Spanish small plates since opening its doors back in 2016.

Owner Lee Murray is a well-known face in the local food scene, having supplied Kentish fine foods at Murrays Stores found in Canterbury’s The Goods Shed for over 12 years. Showcasing the finest ingredients (and those mouth-watering, doorstop slices of Basque cheesecake), his tapas classics and specials are now served up at their scenic spot on Harbour Street on local ceramicist George Foster’s white clay plates – who you might remember from our summer issue!

IG: @harbourstreettapas

Croatian bar Amedea turns 2 Plans to restore the Maunsell Forts Engineering firm Structural Repairs has announced a project is underway to restore the Maunsell Forts off the East Kent Coast. The second world war structures operated as army and navy bases from 1942 to protect London from sea and air strikes. Since being decommissioned in 1958, they have been left in a state of disrepair. But thanks to a further three decades of experience, Structure Repairs has bold plans to restore the armed towers to their former glory and bring them back into public use.

Sure, it might feel like we’ve been supping on San Servolo for many years, but actually our beloved half-Croatian café-bar Amedea has been on our high street for the last few years – and the last 18 months of those were pretty strange! When its doors were flung open again in March, we revelled in that sun-trap patio garden, and those piggy platters with gordal olives and cured paprika sausage are the perfect partner to a crisp glass of vina pilato. And if you’re really keen to celebrate, there’s an extensive shot list to toast Ed and co in style – probably not one for a weeknight though!

IG: @amedeaba

whitstable whistler

w

en in ston ritt e

Writer

Illustration

Christopher Stone

Jade Spranklen

A dose of Whitstable life, past and present

I

’m sitting in the Labour Club with two old friends, Alan and Sharon Smithers. We’re in the garden, perched on raised chairs at a table built around a post, which means that, as Alan is sitting opposite me, we both have to peer around to see each other. There’s a kind of peekaboo element to our conversation.

The Driftwood Shack Handcrafted driftwood products

Hut 33 Whitstable Harbour wolfbain1@aol.com 07900310965

OPINION

I’ve known these two for approaching 40 years.

We met at the old Labour Club when it used to be under the arches. Alan is dyslexic but a genius with his hands. He ran a business fixing jukeboxes and pinball machines, and the Labour Club wanted both.

He is old-school Whitstable. He was born here, though his dad was from Catford. Sharon is from Ramsgate. I asked how they met, and Sharon giggled and blushed. Alan answered my question by looking Sharon in the eye. “The first time I saw you I knew you were the one for me,” he said. “It was probably because I was smiling,” said Sharon.

As it happened, Alan was due to go abroad almost as soon as they got together. Sharon’s family wasn’t keen on him. She was subjected to a barrage of abuse while he was away, which, of course, only made her more determined to follow her heart. “You had to fight for me,” she said. “It was quite exciting.”

They’ve bought their council house on Lucerne Drive, which means that Alan has to work as a courier, despite being past retirement age. He also fixes Raleigh bikes and 2CVs and does occasional window-cleaning jobs as well. They have one child, Sam. He works as a chef. They are both immensely proud of him and what he has achieved.

Sharon also works. She’s an artist’s model. She does so without clothes. I was intrigued by this.

Personally, I would find posing naked excruciating, but Sharon says that, although she was shy at first, it gives her the confidence to be who she is. She’s very good at it according to Alan, who keeps a gallery of her images on his phone: paintings, sculptures and photographs. The sculptures can take several days.

“How do you keep so still?” I ask. “It’s my job,” she

says. She puts herself in the zone. “I shut myself off, think about life, look out of the window...”

“It’s a form of meditation,” I suggest, and she agrees: “Love it. Been doing it for 20 years.”

“Personally, I would find posing naked excruciating, but Sharon says it gives her the confidence to be who she is” Alan says she’s very much in demand, and that some famous artists have asked for her.

He’s obviously proud of what she does. He tells me this story of a woman who insisted that she knew Sharon, even though she couldn’t have.

“Everywhere we go people think they recognise her,” he says. “It’s because she smiles all the time.”

“I don’t want to be miserable,” says Sharon.

“I’m happy everywhere I go. At least I get to meet people. At least people remember me.”

I certainly do and am happy to call both of them my friends.

5

6

Whitstable whistler

man & woman

curated. independent. ethical.

8 harbour street, whitstable www.ruskinclothing.co.uk @ruskin_clothing

fuchsia green Studio & showroom

Step insi e Whitstable’s frien ly coworking space

• Indoor plants & pots • garden design • planting schemes • garden offices

21 Canterbury Road, Whitstable CT5 4HJ info@fuchsiagreen.com

@fuchsiagreenshowroom

NOW ACCEPTING NEW MEMBERS

– – – – – – –

FLE IBLE MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS BUSINESS WIFI TEA û COFFEE MEETING ROOM PRINTING OUTSIDE SPACE LOCKER STORAGE

O P E N M O N – F R I, 8.3 0A M T I L L 6P M FOR MORE DETAILS EMAIL T A L K @ H I V E C O W O R K I N G. C O . U K

7

whitstable whistler

Autumn Hotlist

SEPTEMBER Walk your way with the Salt Marsh Walking Company

You’ll remember Becca’s stunning stroll through strawberry fields in our summer issue, but there’s still time to get involved with her stunning guided walk as the seasons begin to shift.

Exploring the wild North Kent coastline and beautiful countryside of Seasalter and surrounding areas while learning all about the history of the landscape, nature and bird life.

Throughout September and November North Kent coastline thesaltmarshwalking company.co.uk

Whitstable Farmers’ Market Local stalls descend on the Old Coal Yard on Belmont Road for the longstanding Whitstable Farmers’ Market, offering up organic produce from Ripple Farm Organics, Goody Ales and Cheesemakers of Canterbury.

Bi-weekly on Saturdays, 9-2pm Belmont Yard whitstablefarmersmarket.com

Whitstable Arts Market Rummage through classic vinyl, coo over Carol Foster’s ceramics and add the summery flavours of one of Dave Brown’s legendary burrata salads for a golden weekender at the yard.

The Whistable Arts Market will run alternate weekends through the summer To keep up to date, find @brownseventsvan on Instagram

Art Gallery Hut 23 Head down to the seafront and you’ll find Hut 23 harbouring a rotating mix of local artists within its clapperboard-clad frame each week. Previous exhibitors have included Lindsay Wilkinson’s handmade felt and limited edition photos on canvas alongside.

September: Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun October: Fri, Sat & Sun November to December: Sat & Sun Opening Times: 10-4pm Whitstable Harbour Market madeinwhitstable@gmail.com

Positive Birth Whitstable with Liz Foreman

Join Kent Outdoor Explorers for an autumn colours walk

Gathering together every last Wednesday at the Umbrella Centre, these sessions offer friendly support and advice to all expectant and new parents.

Explore Kings Wood on this 7 mile circular adventure from Chilham village. Walk a section of the North Downs Way and journey through stunning ancient woodland, passing through beech groves and witnessing the vibrant shades of yellow and orange.

29 September, 27 October, 24 November The Umbrella Centre, 10 Oxford St, Whitstable CT5 1DD lizforeman.activebirth@yahoo. co.uk

9 October, 10am Go to meetup.com/KentOutdoor-Explorers to book your place and discover more walks

Gulbenkian Arts Centre launches free creative programmes Gulbenkian Arts Centre has announced two new creative groups for children and young people this autumn. The Creative Club is for ages 5-12 and will see a different artist leading 10 weekly workshops, while the Gulbenkian Performance Company for ages 19-25 will encourage attendees to build performance skills in a fun and relaxed environment.

Farmer Fridd has been growing pumpkins on Saffery Farm for 35 years so he’s decided it’s about time we came to pick our own. But it’s not all jolly jacko lanterns galore! The gorgeous gourds are set on a working farm so expect muddy boots and sadly, dogs will have to stay home for this one.

23-30 October, 10-4pm Saffery Farm, Owens Court Road, ME13 9QN pumpkin-lady@outlook.com

Whitstsable Tail pop-up shop

▲ Positive birth session with Liz Foreman

Booking is open for the autumn 2021 term now via thegulbenkian.co.uk

“The Well of the World’s End,” is an old fairytale, which Annie Taylor @WhitstableTail has borrowed and embellished with her larger than life textile sculpture and illustrations.

Visit Show Off on Harbour Street from 15 to 21 October to meet the Fairy GM (she’s nobody’s GodMother) and the Lost Children of the F1 Hybrids.

15-21 October Show Off, Harbour Street annietaylor1000@hotmail.com

Gulbenkian, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NB creativeengagement@kent. ac.uk

Canterbury Festival 2021

OCTOBER Artisan Farmers’ Market

Local stalls descend in the luscious grounds of the Whitstable Castle and Gardens for this monthly artisan farmers’ market offering up organic produce and a whole host of coastal vendors and producers.

Saffery Farm Pick Your Own Pumpkins

▲ Made in Whitstable at Hut 23

2 October, 6 November Whitstable Castle & Gardens, Tower Hill, CT5 2BW

The annual Canterbury Festival brings together the people of Kent for a celebration of creativity, with events popping up across the city including the Malthouse, Westgate Hall and Cathedral Lodge. This year’s festival will launch with a performance by the Armonico Consort and Baroque Players with following appearances by Hamish Stuart (of the Average White Band), folk troubadour Chris Wood and ukelele comedy duo Opera-lele.

16-30 October Across Canterbury canterburyfestival.co.uk

Grammy Awardwinning hip hop troupe Arrested Development

Wade through the best of bluegrass with Whitstable Music Sessions

We promised you last time round that The Duke had a stellar line up set for this Autumn and who mightier to take to the stage than Grammy Award-winning hip hop troupe Arrested Development. Get down to the infamous sounds of “Mr Wendal” all in the unreasonably intimate space of one of our greatest local boozers.

IBMA-nominated bluegrass bunch Midnight Skyracer return to Whitstable Music Sessions this October with a new record in tow. The Island Records’-signed Anglo-Irish all-female quintet are the first bluegrass act ever to sign to a major UK label, so nab your chance to see them by the seaside for a mere £15 to members and £17 to nonmembers.

6 October The Duke of Cumberland, High Street, CT5 1AP Tickets £40adv, seetickets.com ▲ Sourdough workshop with Grain & Hearth

Witches of Whitstable gather for bi-annual fair On a fitting spooky Sunday, the bi-annual Psychic Fair and Witches Market returns to Whitstable Castle’s grounds for tarot readings, angel card reader, healers and wellbeing stalls. The Orangery Tearooms will also be open serving breakfasts, lunches and cream teas to accompany your spiritual surroundings.

Sunday 31 October, 10-4pm, free entry Whitstable Castle & Gardens Tower Hill, Whitstable, Kent CT5 2BW

NOVEMBER Shake your tail feather to Fishslab Gallery

Alma Caira and Annie Taylor (@WhitstableTail) bring their glass and illustrative/textile art to the Fishslab for A Forest: a magical adventure, which will include new collaborative work.

17 to 23rd November.

17-21 November Fishslab Gallery

Prove your baking chops with Grain & Hearth Resident bread buffs Grain & Hearth will be hosting Introduction to Sourdough workshops this Autumn covering how to keep a healthy starter, mixing and shaping your bread, overnight cold fermentation and even how to fire up the right environemnt for your baking in your home kitchen. A light lunch and drinks throughout the day are provided.

Sunday 14th November, 10-3pm

17 October

Grain & Hearth Bakery, 50-52 Oxford St, Whitstable CT5 1DG

Doors/bar 6pm for 7pm start St Mary’s Hall, The Umbrella Centre

grainandhearth.co.uk/ introtosourdough

8

Whitstable whistler

BUSINESS

HOWLING BELLES

Writer Fay Schopen

Images courtesy of Flow&Co

After years of dreaming and scheming behind salon doors, Flow&Co founder Mariano Ruiz speaks to Fay Schopen about launching an award-winning haircare product and the multiple muses behind his SheWolf pack

I

t was lunch at the Pearson’s Arms that clinched the deal for Mariano Ruiz. The hairstylist extraordinaire, who hails from Madrid, had spent nine years in London, including stints at Estée Lauder and Aveda. Ready to open his own salon, he had his eye on Manhattan’s bright lights. His now-husband Shaen, though, was keen for him to stay in the UK, so the couple came to Whitstable for a visit, with lunch at the seafront pub. “There was a jazz band playing, a really nice vibe, and I said to Shaen, ‘I really love it in here.’ So the following weekend I organised a house viewing – within a week we were buying a house,” he says.

New York City’s loss is Whitstable’s gain. Ruiz didn’t plan to open a business here, but once again fate

stepped in. Hearing there was a property available on Horsebridge Street in the heart of town, Ruiz thought he would “just pop in and check it out”. “I walked in and saw the big windows – I love light. I thought, ‘Yes! This is the salon.’ And that was that.”

In 2013 Flow&Co opened its doors, going from strength to strength ever since. I visit late on a Saturday afternoon, and the salon is buzzing with staff and happy clients. On display in the bright interior are the colourful bottles from Ruiz’s latest project – his award-winning haircare range SheWolf, launched in December 2020.

Ruiz has a keen interest in the science of haircare, and SheWolf is the result of years of dreaming and scheming. Five years ago, at a career crossroads, he decided to either open a second salon in London, or start planning his product range in earnest.

The products won. Ruiz spotted a gap in the market: “There was something missing – the fun element of having your hair done.” This ethos is the brand’s key element, he says, with its funky packaging featuring its eponymous, long-haired icon. “When people look at their shelf it brings a smile to their faces,” he says.

SheWolf is not just a pretty face, however. Ruiz has 20 years’ experience in the industry, and the brand is the result of three intensive years of testing and development in Paris. The seven-product range is designed to be versatile, and includes a Japaneseinspired tsubaki hair oil and a

fantastic-smelling apricot hair mask – which Ruiz assures me can tame even my chlorine-frazzled hair.

The brand, free of artificial colours, parabens and sulphates, has already garnered a cult following, as well as a prestigious award – its Inca Oil Hydrating Shampoo took a best runner-up prize at this year’s Marie Claire Hair Awards.

It’s the people who make SheWolf’s success, says Ruiz. He “fell in love” with chemist Catherine Taurin (“our French mother”), and perfumier Virginie Chastanet is another vital team member, with Ruiz putting his own “personal and distinctive” spin on fragrance, a key element of SheWolf. His inspiration – in a year of lockdown – was “global”, with tuberose combined with Mediterranean elements like pomegranate and fig, Japanese camellia and Spanish almonds, transporting SheWolf fans to far-flung, sunny climes.

It’s a far cry from My Little Pony, the colourful toys that inspired Ruiz (who originally planned to be a social worker) to seek a career in hair. “The fragrance that they had! I used to nick my cousin’s My Little Pony and stroke their hair … and thought ‘I really like hair,’” he says.

Above all the brand is a tribute to the strong women in Ruiz’s life.

He says, “I grew up in the kitchen

surrounded by women with all emotions, everything happening there. We could be laughing, we could be crying, we could be having an argument – but that was my real school. The creation of SheWolf is like a repayment to all the women who made me the person and the professional I am today.”

Not only are all the SheWolf models Ruiz’s friends and family, but he also has created a “SheWolf pack” – the real women he finds inspirational, including Whitstable’s own Oy Wah, an artist and illustrator, and the creative force behind some of Whitstable’s fabulous shop window displays. “They’re very inspiring and they’ve been with me on this journey for a long time,” he says.

As for the future: today Whitstable, tomorrow the world. Ruiz wants to create a lifestyle brand that encompasses hair colour and body care. “I want to go global! That would be my dream, no question.”

SheWolf shewolfhair.com IG: @shewolfhaircare Flow&Co flowandco.co.uk T: 01227 271 225 IG: @flowandcohair

whitstable whistler

WELLNESS

HARBOUR BOOKS WHITSTABLE’S INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP

couch surfing

The news – about the environment, the pandemic, global conflict, and discrimination, to name just a few – feels so overwhelming.

I struggle daily with feelings of helplessness about all the things that affect our lives but that can’t be “fixed.” I feel anxious and worry that my mental health is being affected.

How can I manage these feelings?

With so much global flux surrounding us, position your helplessness not as a weakness but as an opportunity to ask for help says our seaside sage

Y

our question “What can be done when there’s nothing to be done?” reflects a hope that many of us might have had over the pandemic, that we can “cure” our unbearable feelings of helplessness. A wish not to be helpless can also be thought of as a wish to be invulnerable. That is, a wish to be spared the capricious vagaries of life: uncertainty, shock, grief, worry, threat and frustration. And so we find that we need to protect ourselves from these feelings of helplessness. But we are so often overwhelmed at the enormity of the task.

There are two ways of thinking about this. One might be related to how the ways in which helplessness makes us feel as though we are of no use. Indeed we often hear those who are faced with seemingly impossible obstacles to exclaim: “What’s the use?” or “What can we do?” If we are faced with an event that is beyond our control – a train being cancelled, a picnic being rained off – this response, of resignation, keeps us in a place of helplessness and therefore may

reinforce our feelings of being useless.

If we can change the question from: “What’s the use?” to “What could be useful?”, we can get to a place where we feel more in control. To be active in using less plastic, for example, might help with your feelings of helplessness about the climate emergency. To help (hopefully in a considered way) others to understand the importance of recycling, reducing and reusing may allow you to feel that you are doing your bit – feeling less useless and so becoming less helpless.

But this may not always work, and that brings us to the second way we can think about the helplessness you describe. To feel helpless is to find oneself in a situation where we recognise help is needed, but this in itself is something we find hard to admit. Helplessness is seen to be a position of weakness. We only have to think about the reluctance many of us have in asking for directions when we’re lost – to ask for help is to render ourselves vulnerable. Could we make a case to assert that a cure for helplessness is to work out how you can ask for help? How we may find a way to think of helplessness not as a weakness but an acceptance that in those moments when we feel overwhelmed, we need a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, advice or solace.

From a place of helplessness, we then might move to one of solidarity and strength. A cure for helplessness, then, is to ask for help. Rather than seeking a way, you can protect yourself from your helplessness, to admit to it can place you in a position of strength.

In fact, your question, which owns your anxieties and feelings in this way comes from this same place of strength. There’s so much you cannot do anything about, but to face up to your helplessness may provide you with experiences that can be rewarding, even inspiring.

If you’d like to take a turn on the couch please send your question to couchsurfing@brightsidepublishing. com

Monday to S aturday | 9:30am to 5:30pm Sunday | 10am to 4pm h a r b o u r b o o k s .o rg • 0 1 2 2 7 6 4 3 2 4 3 • h a r b o u r b o o k s .w h i t s t a b l e @ g m a i l .co m

9

10

Whitstable whistler

ART

Our House In The Middle of Our Street

Writer Katerina Kolyva

Photographer Jean-François de Kriek

T

he East Kent coast has long been a draw for artists and creatives alike – from the late Derek Jarman to musician and producer Matthew Herbert. It feels only fitting then that for the last 20 years, East Kent Artists’ Open Houses have been exhibiting local makers and creators as part of the annual Canterbury Festival Fringe. Ahead of this year’s event then, we caught up with a handful of our coastal creatives to set the tone for an artistic autumn ahead and hear all about their mechanical automatons, matchboxes and massive murals.

Total Pap As we walk into Total Pap’s colourful garden, we enter paper wonderland. Several sheds appear full of artwork, tonnes of different

As the annual Artists’ Open Houses prepares for the public this October, Katerina Kolyva paints a picture of the local art scene, swinging by to meet some of the previous featured artists from the festival

material, projects ranging from multicoloured ceramic goat heads to characterful automatons. “It all started with some bags full of papier mâché we used to carry on the Tube on our way to Camden market,” explains Emily Firmin of the early Total Pap years alongside her partner Justin Mitchell. “As we became regular art sellers in Camden, we met the wonderful landlord and landlady of the Kings of Clerkenwell who wanted us to fill their pub with our work. It became known as the papier mâché pub.”

Firmin and Mitchell moved to Whitstable in 1992 and have been “totalpapping” ever since. Their work is unique in terms of the material they use and their whole concept. Firmin is in charge of the animal world: from naughty dogs to cat angels for the Christmas tree, naturally. Mitchell is the automaton

man, bringing engineering and art together so that all his mechanical devices imitate human movements.

Their proudest moment was in 1995.

“We are so proud of the stamp we created for Royal Mail in the mid90s,” says Firmin. “We were asked to create a stamp as part of the greetings collection and featured alongside artists like Rodin.” Mitchell’s next project is a big automaton featuring three dogs on a boat, while Firmin is looking forward to their exhibition at the Sportsman this November.

WHERE TO FIND TOTAL PAP: Seagulls and Flamingos, Whitstable The Old Neptune, Whitstable Café Des Amis, Canterbury Coming soon at the Sportsman, Seasalter IG: @totalpap

whitstable whistler

Andrew Malone Andrew Malone knows this Kent coast area only too well – first as a student in the 1980s when he studied at the art college in Canterbury, now as a Whitstable-based artist. “I moved to Whitstable 26 years ago when I got married. It is a great place to start a family,” he says, reflecting on the evolution of the seaside town over the years. “It has changed a lot but continues to be very arty with local grassroots.”

Art comes out of Malone’s childhood. He loves nature and has a passion for collecting and taking the time to put things together. “I am a hoarder,” he admits sheepishly. “And I managed to combine my passion for nature with that of collecting. I have a daily diary of wildlife going back to 1978 and have collected feathers, pressed flowers and insects in matchboxes since I was small.”

His artwork consists of vintage matchboxes adorned with birds, butterflies or fish, with cut-out elements that come out of the box as a surprise. But what is really amazing is the detailed work behind every piece: “I have collected matchboxes and small books on nature for years. I spend hours searching for them online and once I come across the right matchbox, I find the exact bird in one of my books, cut it out and add it to it.”

The artist’s keen eye for ornithology comes from his time working at the RSPB. He is very proud of the feedback on his work, particularly the small-scale level of detail and concentration. When Malone is

ART

11

not cutting out birds, butterflies or fish, you will find him teaching or organising the next Whitstable Biennale of which he is the chair.

WHERE TO FIND ANDREW MALONE: Frank, Whitstable Rock Paper Scissors, Canterbury IG: @andrewmaloneartist

Ben Dickson Ben Dickson marries perfectly his graphic design and illustration experience with his art therapy training. As we walk into his open-plan kitchen lounge cum art workshop on a lovely sunny morning, we’re impressed immediately by the large colourful artwork on the walls featuring men boxing. “I am really interested in men’s mental health. Using the image of men in a sport like boxing helps with having conversations about men’s mental wellbeing,” he explains.

Dickson is clearly a versatile artist: “I was trained in healthcare and was a hospital manager but could not possibly do this for the rest of my life as I enjoy change. So I took on a career as a freelance designer and illustrator, initially specialising in linocuts but now on a large scale with my murals.”

Dicksons’ work is massive in size and volume. His work for the Marlowe Theatre involved creating 52 unique portraits of lifesize people from history, current affairs, and local culture. From Tracey Emin to the Queen, the audience of the musical SIX at the theatre came in for a surprise as 500 cutouts filled the theatre for the first time in several months. Imagine sidling up against Jacob Rees-Mogg or Catherine of Aragon. The Marlowe “flatmates” were really a unique way for Dickson to support the theatre’s socially distanced reopening.

From a large-scale wall painting on an Irish supermarket in Bray, to linocut exhibits, Dickson is constantly diversifying his portfolio. When asked what he is most proud of he instantly responds: “My next project, the Somerset Maugham mural at Parry Law in Whitstable. It has taken so long to organise the scaffolding. I got the good news today that the project can finally go ahead.”

WHERE TO FIND BEN DICKSON: The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury The Somerset Mural at Parry Law, Whitstable IG: @bendickson_print The East Kent Open Artist Houses take place every weekend throughout October. Visit ekoh.org. uk/whitstable for the full local lineup

Here to help.

• Acupuncture with Melanie Gleeson-Lee • Osteopathy with Gemma Dawson and Jennie Gibbons • Nutrition with Eva Johnson • Paediatric Physiotherapy with Fran Thompson, Kent Children’s Clinic • Homeopathy with Lucy Cartwright • Bowen Therapy with Selina Firth • Facial Acupuncture with Denise Norton • Pilates with The Pilates Studio Whitstable • Physiotherapy with Heidi Warren • Clinical Hypnotherapy with Jonathan Dunn • Reflexology with Judi Barnes • Pocket Family Psychologist

01227 941 611

w w w. c l i n i c 1 2 4 . c o .u k

whitstable whistler

COMMUNITY

13

heaven is a halfpipe Writer Jenni Moore

Images courtesy of FAR Skate

A decade on from founding the alternative learning academy, FAR Skate CEO Brent Lewis tells us about how the charity is transforming lives of young people and why, like nailing that kickflip, even if you fall, you get back up and keep pushing forward

S

aturday morning, the John Wilson Business Park: a cookiecutter collection of industrial buildings on the outskirts of Whitstable. Not the most inspiring of landscapes, but that doesn’t deter any of the youngsters turning up at the FAR Skate Academy, each one clutching a skateboard; some are here for a lesson, others for an art workshop.

Brent Lewis, head teacher and CEO, greets everyone with a smile and points them in the right direction. He founded FAR Skate in 2010 – the first school of its kind in the UK – to provide specialist learning to vulnerable youngsters who struggle in mainstream education. Alongside maths and English qualifications, it also offers practical learning, photography, graphic design and business enterprise.

“I have compassion for the youngsters who come here,” says Brent. “I understand what they’re going through. School puts you into a box and if you don’t fit that box, you struggle. The school system is an exam factory. A lot of the young people at FAR Skate have been told they’re not good at anything – we see that all the time. But our students achieved a 100 per cent pass rate this year, and there’s no way they could have done that any other way.”

Brent describes his own experience at school as “pretty negative” and ► Skater Chloe Silk, © Sam Grady

14

Whitstable whistler

COMMUNITY

he left at 15 to work as a labourer. But he never lost focus on his passion for skateboarding, which he discovered as an eight-year-old. “I went to a local shop, bought a skateboard, and that was it,” he says. “It was the one constant in my life that I could rely on – the one thing that taught me, if you fall, you’ve just got to get back up and keep pushing.”

It’s this ethos of perseverance after failure that permeates FAR Skate’s teaching methods. “Kids learn persistence naturally through skateboarding,” says Brent. “Some of these kids will spend hours practising jumping down a stair set, ending up with cuts and bruises. But it’s that one moment when they land right – there’s that feeling of joy. That’s what we do here: we transfer that energy into learning. We tell the kids, work

on this qualification and you’ll get that same feeling of success.”

It took real persistence by Brent to get FAR Skate started. After studying to become a teacher and working in various school settings, he soon discovered that mainstream education wasn’t for him. His last teaching job was at a private school and, by his own admission, he was earning lots of money. “But every day I had this sinking feeling, thinking I can’t do this,” he says. “So I walked in on a Monday and handed in my notice.”

For the next 18 months he lived in a van and travelled around, getting an idea of what young people need from education. He visited disadvantaged areas, making skateboards with kids at local skate parks, finding out what worked and what didn’t work. When

FAR SKATE GRAD

PATRICK CULMER, 23

“I had a poor experience at school, with bullying and not getting on with teachers, so I left in Year 8. What drew me to FAR Skate was I could do a qualification that was useful to me. I loved having access to the workshop and making skateboards – it was a dream come true. I can now operate the laser cutter and use Illustrator.

For the past year or so, I’ve been working part time designing and customising skateboards, and I’m about to start full time as a workshop technician. What I really appreciate is the fact I’m doing something I’m passionate about and also supporting the academy.”

CARPP

CENTRE of PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Effective Professional Coaching Professional coaching helps makes sense of the push-and-pull of work and life. e bring rigour, reflection and attention to our clients, inspiring them to progress by unlocking new awareness, personal clarity and true inner confidence.

If you're looking to expand your professional repertoire and act with greater authority, creati#ity and agency, our coaching could be for you.

To find out more, get in touch today: thisisitprojects12@gmail.com / 07983002492 www.thisisitprojects.me

he returned to Whitstable, he knew hopes to see FAR Skate replicated what he needed to do and set up FAR throughout the UK. “We get calls Skate. from councils all over the place, Fast-forward a decade and its requesting a school,” he says. “I even trailblazing work has been recognised had a mum in New York call, asking if with a prestigious KEiBA (Kent her kids could come here to study.”

Excellence in Business Award) and As well as his role at FAR Skate, Canterbury Start-up Business Award.

Brent is also a director of Skateboard But like any charity, funding remains GB and was involved in the recent a major concern. “It’s hard,” says Tokyo Olympics. How does he juggle Brent. “The demand for our services the workload? “I haven’t had a day is huge and we’ve got a massive off in years,” he laughs. “I work waiting list for youngsters who want seven days a week, but I love what I to come here. We’re always looking do. These kids are amazing. Every for more sponsors to help more young young person that comes to us sees a people.” real difference, and success for each The plan for the immediate future young person differs. For some, it is to expand its existing premises by might be that they stop self-harming; Dean issite a Master’s taking over the vacant next doorDegreefor others, it could be setting up level qualifi edand strength & their own business. It’s those little to build an indoor skate park more classrooms.

The longer coach. term steps along the way that make the conditioning goal is to establish a much-needed difference.” community hub in Canterbury. But himhe today Brent’s vision isContact limitless and farskate.co.uk

or visit Team Beaver’s Website

Able to help with any sport specific or health and fitness related goal 1-2-1, small or large groups sessions Dean is a Master’s Degree level qualified strength & conditioning coach.

Contact him today

07846 435 960

Tel: Email: dean@teambeaver.co.uk Website: www.teambeaver.co.uk @teambeaversnc

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE SPECIALISTS

YEAR 7 TO SIXTH FORM • Co-ed day & boarding school. • High-performing & non-selective • Academic & creative • Average class size 8 • 40+ subjects taught • Transfer for GCSE or A level to catch up • Regular Medicine & Dentistry placements • Creative, digital & performing arts specialists

Book a taster day or visit our virtual open house *Ranked in the top 2% of schools in England for progress at A level

01634 828115 admissions@rochester-college.org rochester-college.org

Community.Circular.Change An inspiring store environment selling pre-loved, premium quality brands.

The Gents Lodge is a new concept designed for men to feel comfortable looking after their mind, body and soul.

Services include; barber services including traditional hot towel shaves, specialist beard care, a range of tailored treatments including, massages, facials, manicures and pedicures and a sunbed, sauna and lounges to relax in.

26A Addington Street, Ramsgate, CT11 9JJ

Our kitchen offers food throughout the day and a fully licensed bar

www.positive-retail.com

Bespoke packages, like our 'Groomsmen Tailored Package' and our 'Father and Son Tailored Pamper Package' which makes a perfect gift. www.thegentslodge.co.uk relax@thegentslodge.co.uk Gentslodge @thegentslodge Unit 5 Copperleaf Business Park, Dane Valley Road, St Peters, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 3AT

01843 838349

Please quote ‘WW10’ for 10% discount

@positive_retail

whitstable whistler

ART & CULTURE

17

hammer horror Writer Tony Mardon

Images courtesy of Tony Mardon

As spooky season sets in, thespian Tony Mardon shares his early memories of fellow Whitstable resident, late British actor and OBE Peter Cushing, and the impact of those leading performances in the Hammer horror films

M

y obsession with horror films began, as it did with many, in the comfort and safety of the lounge, surrounded by the familiar in reality while allowing controlled access to the unearthly for just three or four hours a week. If I’d managed to set the timer correctly and rewound the tape to the beginning on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I’d be treated to a double-bill of monsters and mayhem from the likes of Universal, Amicus and Tyburn. I vividly remember my mother, on seeing the bright red, gothic Hammer title card at the start of one film, exclaim, “Oh, Hammer... this will be good!” And they really were. These late nights and early morning treats introduced me, at a young age, to a world in which not everything in the dark is imaginary...

There was one cinematic partnership that always added gravitas to the inconceivable. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were then, and remain to this day, my on-screen heroes.

In 1986 I lived in Gillingham, Kent, with my family. I was fourteen. It wasn’t unusual for my mum and dad to take my brother and me out on a Saturday to a museum, fair or whatever event was taking place. But on this very important day we found ourselves

at the seaside. However, the harbour, beach, fish and chips, and ice cream all paled into insignificance when I saw the poster… It read, “An Evening with Peter Cushing,” and gave details of how one could obtain tickets. I don’t think I can adequately explain how I felt! I didn’t quite understand why the most famous and greatest actor in all the universe (at least to me) was going to be here, in an unheard-of town called Whitstable, and not in his mansion just underneath the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. Pre-internet, at fourteen, I thought every actor in the world lived under the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

In due course, two tickets arrived, one for me and one for my dad. I still have mine. What I didn’t know at the time is that my dad, knowing how excited I was, had rung the organiser and arranged for me to meet Cushing before the interview. I had no idea until we arrived and was introduced to another young chap, with the line, “This is… He is on the same mission as you...”

I looked at these people, confused, then at my dad, then at Cushing who was standing next to me. That’s how I remember it anyway. And that’s how I got to meet my hero and spend a few minutes not saying much, just staring. He was very lovely and signed

a couple of books for me. I have no idea what was said by either of us; I only remember a hugely overwhelming feeling of both gratitude and awe. Me, Frankenstein, Van Helsing, Grand Moff Tarkin and, more importantly, the put-upon Grimsdyke from Tales from the Crypt (1972) and the proprietor of a strange antique shop in From Beyond the Grave (1974). Just there… together. I still get very emotional remembering both how I felt meeting this legendary figure and also how my dad had organised this for me, knowing how much of a fan I was.

It seems almost unthinkable now, to consider that had my parents not chosen to come to Whitstable that day I would never have met the actor who continues to inspire me. Even more so now as I live in Whitstable and

see and feel his presence everywhere.

Whether walking past the local boozer named in his honour (he would not have approved!), popping into the museum, running past his old house (because I’m a runner, not a stalker!), or just sitting on the beach. This move was not planned at all. While living in Canterbury I met a woman living in Whitstable whom I would go on to marry. And here I am, 16 or so years later. Bizarrely, that is not the only coincidence. When I dug out the 1986 ticket from its folder I saw that the “evening with” had been held at the St Edmund’s School hall in Canterbury – the very same school my son left this year, having been there for the last seven years...

Sometimes it very much feels like I am in the right place. I am now ►

18

Whitstable whistler

ART & CULTURE

acting – mainly in horror films, which makes me very happy indeed. I’m not sure Mr Cushing would have appreciated all of them, being a bit heavy on the gore, but then we have to remember that when Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) were released they

“I thought every actor in the world lived under the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles” both garnered the X certificate, which Hammer was keen to exploit. I am also producing and directing my first feature film The Witches of the Sands.

Although we have had teams filming in the USA, the majority has been filmed in Whitstable which seems appropriate. We had a wonderful day

shooting a very intense scene in the Playhouse Theatre. The cast on this day included Linzi Drew-Honey (An American Werewolf in London) but also Pauline Peart, who is perhaps best known for her role in Hammer’s The Satanic Rites of Dracula with Christopher Lee and... Peter Cushing.

In the 1990s, horror film double-bills were reintroduced to the BBC schedule after a successful Halloween horror movie all-night marathon. America had embraced the idea of TV horror hosts for many years with the likes of campy 1950s character Vampira, Mistress of the Dark Elvira, and the eponymous Svengoolie. Now the UK had its very own in the form of Dr Walpurgis, later to become Dr Terror, who would introduce each film with a dry, sardonic wit. I mention this because the actor who played him is none other than Guy Henry, known for the Harry Potter films and Holby City, among others. However, fans of Peter Cushing

FUSS-FREE HEALTHY FAMILY KIDS MEALS DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

© Dream Safari

and Star Wars will also know him as the voice of the controversial CGI rendition of Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story… so it’s full circle for Guy Henry, introducing the films of Peter Cushing then 25 years later voicing the character he famously played in 1977.

I don’t need to tell you how loved Peter Cushing is in Whitstable. I don’t need to tell you where to go or what to see as that has been covered a

multitude of times. What I can say is that through a series of serendipitous occurrences I have found myself living a matter of minutes from the house Peter Cushing called his home for around 35 years. And for that, I am very grateful.

Tony Mardon’s The Witches of The Sands is due for release next year.

Follow him on Instagram for more monster musings @tonymardon

01227 771 883

NOMAD PIZZA WHITSTABLE OFFERS DELICIOUS THIN CRUST PIZZA TO GO USING FRESH AND LOCAL INGREDIENTS

SIMPLE | NOURISHING | SEASONAL

Autumn Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday: 5-9pm Fridays and Saturday: 5-9.30pm | Sunday: 5-9pm

@MINNOKITCHEN

WWW.MINNOKITCHEN.COM

NOMADPIZZAWHITSTABLE.CO.UK 76 HIGH STREET, WHITSTABLE, KENT CT5 1AZ

The Neppy has a long history as a live music venue and we are delighted to continue hosting free music events every Saturday and Sunday from 6pm. whistler advert2 AUG21.pdf

1

31/08/2021

October 10th 17th 24th 31st

Mickey Blue Eyes Blues Devils Bob Dylan Tribute Halloween Party with Big Orange Head

November 7th 14th 21st 28th

Steve Bolton Nightwatch Bill Dan and Saxby Ivan's Allstars

Marine Terrace, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1EJ

Tel: 01227 272262 www.thepubonthebeach.co.uk Opening Times

Monday: 11:30am – 10:00pm Tuesday: 11:30am – 10:00pm Wednesday: 11:30am – 10:00pm Thursday: 11:30am – 11:00pm Friday: 11:30am – 11:00pm Saturday: 11:30am – 11:00pm Sunday: 12pm – 9:00pm

20:36

TREAT YOURSELF TO SOME OF THE BEST GIN AROUND Stockists:

THERE'S A NEW GIN IN TOWN C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Follow us on social media @WhitstableHarbourGin Order online www.WhitstableHarbourGin.co.uk

The Old Neptune, Whitstable The Offy, Whitstable The Rose in Bloom, Whitstable Cafe & Kitchen, Whitstable Samphire, Whitstable The Handsome Sam, Whitstable The Quayside, Whitstable The Fountain, Whitstable The Duke of Cumberland, Whitstable Windy Corner Stores & Cafe, Whitstable The Rock Lodge, Whitstable The Pearson’s Arms, Whitstable The Prince Albert, Whitstable The Royal Naval Reserve, Whitstable Westgate & Birchington Golf Club Judd's Folly at Syndale Park, Faversham The Royal Oak, Blean Murray's General Stores at The Goods Shed, Canterbury The Maidens Head, Canterbury Sholden Village Stores, Deal Gibsons Farm Shop, Wingham The Fez Bar, Margate The Pelton Arms, Greenwich The Shortlands Tavern, Bromley The Two Doves, Bromley The Bricklayers Arms, Chipstead

20

Whitstable whistler

SHOPPING

the gift guide While we’re not uttering the C word just yet (not that one!), we’ve rounded up some local wares for an indulgent post-pay day treat or to squirrel away for those inevitable stocking fillers

FLOW&CO SHE WOLF INCA OIL HYDRATING SHAMPOO, £14.50 Ready to join Mariano Ruiz’s pack after reading his conversation with Fay Schopen on page 8? This hydrating shampoo is gentle but strong, just like any great SheWolf. Step in the shower, get the warm water flowing, and let this specially formulated hydrating shampoo start the work of bringing dry, stressed-looking hair back to life.

WHITSTABLE HARBOUR GIN

AMEDEA

WHITSTABLE HARBOUR GIN SEA BUCKTHORNE AND SAMPHIRE, £33.50

POLYMER EARRINGS, £20 The half-Croatian bar is celebrating its big second birthday, after all, so they surely deserve a nod with these statement earrings. Created by polymer clay artist, Tate (@bytateuk), these artful accessories are available from the café bar along with custom totes and tees (perhaps, not all part of the same outfit, mind…)

Whitstable Harbour Gin is steeped in the folklore of sailors, smugglers and steam.

Delicately crafted by expert distillers in traditional copper stills, this small batch London Dry is both inspired by and infused with sea plants native to the ancient shoreline and salt marshes of Whitstable.

Currently offering delivery to CT1, CT2, CT3, CT5, CT6, ME13. Email info@whitstsableharbourgin.co.uk for sales and info.

RUSKIN CLOTHING UNIVERSAL WORKS FAIR ISLE JUMPER, £179

VITA STORES VICKY HAGEMAN MUG, £28 Handthrown and hand-decorated porcelain by local ceramicist Vicky Hageman.

Hageman specialises in making wheelthrown tableware in porcelain. The pieces are decorated with simple incised lines using coloured slip, or with raised pattern.

The beauty of a hand-made product is its unique quality – no two pieces are the same.

Please expect slight variations to the size, colour, and patina of this piece.

WHITSTABUBBLE WHITSTABUBBLE CUSHION, £45

Ready to ditch the tees in favour of some cosy woollens instead? Give the gift of knitwear for a snuggly autumn season ahead with this wool-blend, Fair Isle-style pullover from British brand Universal Works.

This handmade Whitstabubble cushion can conjure up fond memories of trips to our seaside town or just find you basking in the comfortable smugness of getting to live here.

Neighbour to the iconic Playhouse Theatre, Whitstabubble is a homeware shop that sells a mixture of new and vintage finds.

TOYS AND TRENDS NEE DOH, £3.99 At the moment in the toy world, it is all about fidget toys. The Nee Doh will be available end of September and will make a great stocking filler. You squish away with an added bonus of glowing in the dark. It is a huge craze right now and here until Christmas for sure.

Thank you for supporting local businesses in Whitstable and Tankerton.

DID YOU KNOW THAT AROUND 65P OF EVERY POUND SPENT LOCAL, STAYS LOCAL?

whitstable whistler

SHOPPING

THE BEAR TRADING COMPANY

THE HORSEBRIDGE

HIGH TEA WITH GLASS OF PROSECCO, £19.50 PER PERSON

PETER CUSHING PRINT

21

Inspired by our Peter Cushing horror homage on page 17, you can honour the legendary late British actor and OBE with this custom print thanks to local illustrator Quinton Winter. Winter and his partner author Sarah Banville are also the creative sparks behind our very own seaside monster – Crabzilla! Prints of which are available from Whitstable Community Museum and Gallery.

With one of the largest selections of Teddy bears in Kent, you’ll be in good company at the Bear Trading Company in Tankerton.

Paws for a moment and take in one of their high teas featuring homemade cakes, scrumptious sandwiches and a glass of bubbles (bear hug, optional). Pre-booking is essential either on 01227 264950 or online at thebearstradingcompany.co.uk

BRITS LOVE VINTAGE MARILYN MONROE DRESSER, BY COMMISSION In our continued bid to make do and mend, Brits Love Vintage specialises in professionally recycling reclaimed furniture with striking contemporary designs like this pop art special of Marilyn Monroe herself. If the blonde bombshell isn’t for you, check out their latest designs of Mexican painter Frida Khalo or create your own with a custom commission.

NULA NULA X KATE EVERETT UNISEX TEE, £35

FUCHSIA GREEN HOUSEPLANT CARE GIFT SET, £28

A collaboration between Canterbury-based artist Kate Everett and sustainable clothing brand Nula, this 100% organic cotton tee features an original ink wash artwork printed in eco-friendly screenprint. This unisex tee makes a great gift for guys and gals alike! Available from nulaclothing.co.uk and in Ruskin, Harbour Street.

Grasping onto more green in your living space as the trees turn more golden?

The perfect gift for the houseplant fanatic in your life, Plantsmiths Fortifying Houseplant Care System includes 500ml amber glass bottles contains plant tonic with thirteen essential nutrients to encourage strong, glossy leaves and Houseplant Care Mist formulated to promote good health with every spray, creating humidity and deterring pests.

COPPERFIELDS CHAMPAGNE AND WINE COOLER, £79 With the novelty of finally being able to host again, make sure you’re set for the seasonal celebrations with this timeless and classic wine and champagne cooler. This single-walled stainless steel contraption can hold up to six bottles at once. Enough for the first hour of the evening then.

BOX AND BLOOM BUTTERCUP MAILEG MOUSE WITH SLEEPING BAG (£30.75), TENT (£37) AND VINTAGE LANTERN (£22) A perfect little holiday tent for a happy camper mouse. Enrich playtime with this pure linen tent. Take your Maileg mice along for a sleepover under the stars. Part of the magical Maileg World collection, all available at Buttercup in-store and online at buttercupwhitstable.co.uk

BUYING LOCAL SUPPORTS COMMUNITY WELLBEING, STRONGER NEIGHBOURHOOD AND DIVERSITY.

WREATH MAKING BOX AND VIRTUAL WORKSHOP, £45 Craft your own door-hanging showstoppers ahead of the big day (nope, we’re not saying it) with local wreath maker Box and Bloom.

Your kit will come all set with floristry scissors, dried flowers, wreath ring, and Kentish refreshments. Or why not try your hand at a DIY version with the help of our step-by-step guide with Nancy Hamling of Box and Bloom on page 28.

IT REDUCES YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT WITH LESS PACKAGING AND TRANSPORT POLLUTION. Follow Shop by the Sea to see what’s going in on your high street.

YOGA STUDIO AND WELLBEING CENTRE "find your reason for being"

Find bliss, inner peace and a holisitc range of treatments and ‘find your reason for being’ classes in our studio and wellbeing Wellbeing Centre | in Classes | Workshops centre, right the heart of Whitstable

83 Canterbury Road, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 4HQ

Find bliss, inner peace and a holisitc range of treatments and classes in our studio and wellbeing centre, right in the heart of Whitstable.

CLASS LIST Yoga for Teens | Hatha Yoga | Yin Yoga | Gentle Flow AntiGravity | Kundalini Yoga | Restorative Yoga Vinyasa Yoga | Power Yoga | Pilates WORKSHOPS Chakra Healing Circle & Sould Bath | Alchemy Crystal Sound Bath Gong Bath & Breath | Ashtanga Yoga Fundamentals Meditation for Energy | Crystal Healing WELLBEING CENTRE

WELLBEING CENTRE Above the studio space you will find our wellbeing centre. We have several Above the studio space you will find our wellbeing centre. We have practitioners who specialise in a range of several practitioners who specialise in a range of areas; Psychotherapy, areas.

Counselling, Acupuncture, Osteopathy, Homeopathy, Nutritional WORKSHOPS therapy, Clinical Hypnotherapy.

Tel: 01227 779097 | ikigaiholistic.co.uk |

Illustrator Annie Taylor

A Whitstable tail Many ask about the origin story of Whitstable’s Street, but for local artist and Profanity Embroidery Group founder Annie Taylor, it’s a tale as old as time

T

his is the story of the Street, that magical winding tidal path that leads far out to sea.

Generally assumed to be a naturally occurring landmass or even the remains of a Roman harbour, I can tell you it is neither.

Once upon a time, there was a Whitstable family who lived as though part of the sea itself. They knew every wave, could read every storm, predict every catch, swim like fish and dive like cormorant.

All apart from the Boy with the big feet, and no matter how much he loved the sea, he could not be in or on it.

He’d watch the tide for hours, far from all the boats and fishing and swimming, keeping his feet well out of the way of both the water and his hard-working family. He always felt he was being watched back, but by what or whom, he didn’t know.

He just kept waiting, and then one day, he saw.

ikigaiholistic |

–

Chakra Healing Circle & Sould Bath

–

Alchemy Crystal Sound Bath

–

CLASS LIST – – – – –

Yoga for Teens Hatha Yoga Yin Yoga Gentle Flow AntiGravity

– – – – –

Kundalini Yoga Restorative Yoga Vinyasa Yoga Power Yoga Pilates

ikigaiholistic Whitstable, Kent, CT5 4HQ Gong Bath & Breath | 83 Canterbury Road,ikigaiholistic.co.uk

–

Ashtanga Yoga Fundamentals

–

Meditation for Energy

–

Crystal Healing

facebook.com/ikigaiholistic instagram.com/ikigaiholistic Canterbury Road, Whitstable, CT5 4HQ The busy83 family noticed a change in Kent, the Boy. He was always Tel: the01227 most779097 lovely of lads, amiable and helpful, but nowadays, he shone with a happy glow.

Funnily enough though, he wasn’t anywhere near so helpful. His siblings called to him to help launch the boats, but he didn’t come. His parents called for him to help land the catch, but he didn’t come. He said he was “building something”. And certainly, he was covered in sand and mud, and barnacles – which was quite odd.

Years passed, and life on the Whitstable coast continued much as it had for the past two hundred years. The Boy grew, and his feet stayed in the same proportion to his body. The family saw less of him, but he was clearly very happy, and they were always so busy.

One day, a visitor in search of fine oysters asked about the people standing far out in the sea, and what was that rocky causeway. The family exchanged fleeting glances. The sound of pennies falling from great heights was a cheerful tinkle all along the beach. “Ahh well,” said Father, “it’s a naturally occurring shingle spit, which some people think was a Roman harbour.” The visitor had never noticed it before. “Only visible at low tide,” said Father, dropping an extra few oysters in his bag, gratis. The greedy visitor skedaddled.

The family walked together along the beach. Sure enough, there was the Boy, far out to sea, at the end of a huge winding stone and sand and seaweed street. He was sitting talking to a girl, holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes. His feet were in the water and she was resting her scaly green tail across them, tickling his toes with her fins.

“Well, well, a Mermaid,” said Great-GreatGrandfather pushing Great-Great-Grandmother in an old wicker bath chair. Great-Great-Grandfather gently tucked a wisp of aged green fin back beneath the cosy plaid blanket and winked, “History does have a funny old way of repeating itself.”

whitstable whistler

WELLNESS

23

shore thing Writer Rebecca Martin

Swimming in the sea?

No chance, said writer Rebecca Martin. But sunrise dips, new friends and a shared love for nature changed everything

I

t’s 4:30 am and my alarm belts out the familiar tone from my phone. It’s time to get up – but not for a train commute – not even an airport dash to a holiday destination (remember those?). I’m going swimming, in the sea, with a hoard of sleepy local residents who call themselves “Bluetits”. Had you described this scenario to me prior to the pandemic, I’d have laughed and hit snooze on your story. But this is 2021 – everything has changed for me – and I’m not the only one.

The call of the freezing-cold waters of Whitstable has amassed almost 800 supporters on the “Bubbletits Bluetits” Facebook page, something that was only launched in October 2020. It’s all part of a national swimming group, the Bluetits Chill Swimmers Ltd, that describes itself as a social enterprise “committed to empowering our community of cold-water dippers”.

And dip we do.

At the first sign of dawn, the deep orange light of the sun creeps over the clouds and we tip-toe into the waves, our squeals of delight (and cold!) filling the slopes of Tankerton. Some swim, some dip, some train for triathlons, some merely run in to feel the icy salt water on their skin… and then retreat.

The diversity of the “swimmers” is exactly what makes it so special. There are mothers, sneaking out at sunrise before their children awake, to feel the invigorating power of the sea; retired men and women who long for companionship; single people looking

for laughs; people who have been through trauma or those who just want to feel alive. The water, no matter how cold, does just that.

Imogen Tinkler, of Bangers & Balls, was one of three co-founders of the Bubbletits Bluetits. (She is joined

by Catherine Chapman, a pilates instructor, and Caroline Lyons, of Lotus Therapies and Ollogii.) Talking about the Whitstable franchise, she tells me, ironically, that the group “exudes warmth”. She adds: “It’s a community that supports each other, is so kind, has strong values and welcomes everyone in. For me, it’s been a huge lifeline. Sometimes I have no idea how I managed to even function in 2020 after losing my youngest daughter Beatrix and our business overnight in the same week.

The Bluetits gave me a focus and got me out of bed every single day over winter. It gave me the resilience I needed to be able to face each day. I know I’m not alone in how I feel.”

My swimming journey only began in summer 2020. I paddled in the sea as a child here, of course. Then abroad in the azure waters of Croatia, Hawaii and more. But it felt so alien to strip off in the UK as an adult and swim.

How wrong I was. I wish I’d continued swimming after dipping in the summer. But it was only when friends encouraged me to brave the freezing waters in March that I got back in. I haven’t looked back since.

A 2021 report by Outdoor Swimmer states that 45% of swimmers increased

TOP “TIT” TIPS - Prioritise safety over selfies.

- Wear neoprene gloves, boots and a woolly hat for warmth.

- Respect your body – only do what you feel comfortable with.

- Keep moving, standing still will make you colder.

- Limit the time you stay in for the first few dips.

- Have a hot drink and something to eat when you get out.

- Wear plenty of warm clothes afterwards – you’ll lose heat once on land.

how much they swim outside in 2020, while 75% of new outdoor swimmers said they wanted to continue swimming through winter.

The pandemic was a key driver in getting people outside, resulting in many of us trying to step away from screens and connect with nature.

Mountain Warehouse saw a huge surge in the interest for outdoor water activities, with searches for wetsuits on its website increasing by over 495% and sales growing by 229%. Few of us actually wear wetsuits, though. The thrill comes from the cold, you see.

A quick question to the Bubbletits group on how sea swimming makes them feel gave me dozens of the same responses: it’s rejuvenating, calming, grounding, connects you to something bigger, aligns you with nature, offers

a reawakening of the body and mind, tranquility, a sense of achievement, healing… and new friends.

The medical benefits are proven, too. Sea swimming or bathing in cold water has been recommended for its healing properties since the 18th century. It’s been known to reduce muscle swelling and inflammation, boost the immune system, improve sleep, reduce stress and, ultimately, increase happiness. I also love how soft it leaves my skin, the stress release I feel from being weightless – and the tingly feeling of euphoria that swarms my body as I warm up. All this is even better when paired with a sunrise or sunset to watch as you sip tea and chat to the fellow swimmers around you.

The people I swim with have become dear friends, so I can’t give the sea the full credit for supporting my own mental health. But I will cherish these months, the early starts and sunrise swims, the effect our ocean has had on supporting us all – and I will relish at just how lucky we are to live here.

Join the movement to ban CSO sewage releases in Whitstable, Tankerton and Swalecliffe. Learn more about our fight and lend your support at facebook.com/ SOSWhitstable.

Find the Bubbletit Bluetits (Whitstable) on Facebook.

Follow @theeditorrebecca / @bexonthebeach on Instagram.

whitstable whistler

FOOD

25

a bumper crop Writer

Amie O’Connor Poole

Illustrator Jess Roberts

Photography © Sam Burch

This harvest season, meet the local farmers and foodie businesses making the community’s nutrition their mission

W

hile we all know eating seasonally and locally benefits both the planet and our health, for many of us it’s a concept that can prove elusive. Fortunately, in a world where convenience is king, there’s a movement of local food heroes finding ways to make it a little easier.

Eating seasonally with Rosewood Acres A visit to Rosewood Acres farm offers eye-opening insight into how much care goes into everything they produce. Here, eggs may be the main focus when it comes to sales, but it’s their impact on the land and feeding the community that are most central to their concept.

“Grasslands have the highest

ability to reverse climate change,” explains co-owner Sam Burch. “Our permaculture principle helps nature restore biodiversity and sequester carbon through careful management, keeping animals moving across the landscape. Healthy soil is key to healthy food and healthy food is key to healthy people.”

The hens are an essential part of this, moving every two weeks to fertilise the soil, keeping them happy and healthy, and promoting “rampant vegetative growth”. Warmer months see this healthy soil teeming with abundant vegetable beds, where the small team grows the contents of their increasingly popular weekly veg boxes using a “no-dig” method.

“We can’t win on price, but we can win on nutrition,” says Tom Burton, who along with Harrhy James helps Burch manage the farm. Customers can visit every Saturday morning to collect veg boxes, buy eggs, explore the farm and even pick their own flowers from neighbours, The Flower Farm Denstroude.

“People coming here is the ideal,” says James. “Once we meet customers and they can see what we do, they tend to become regulars.” “We take organic rules and go beyond them,” adds Burch. “When people see it for themselves, they understand.

We are people-certified. It may not always be as convenient, but we want to show people eating seasonally is achievable.” ►

26

Whitstable whistler

FOOD

Photography © Andrew Hayes-Watkins

Serving up surplus with Wasted Kitchen Just a short hop over the Thanet Way is Monkshill Farm, where Wasted Kitchen’s Katy Newton plans and creates their “food with provenance and purpose”.

“The concept has always been

straightforward: good food, done right,” explains Newton. “Which for us is about reducing waste and using local produce.”

It began when Newton realised some of the area’s abundant fruit was going to waste and started preserving it in spirits and vinegars to sell at local markets Macknades and Whitstable Produce. Soon people started getting in touch about their surplus and the business evolved.

“I had been working with Stefano at Macknades and pointed out that they didn’t have any fresh salads in the deli. I said, “Why don’t you let me do some?” “When they have fruit and veg that would go to waste, we buy it, create our menu around it, then sell it back to them and others.”

Wasted Kitchen now delivers meals, fridge fillers and salads directly to customers, covering Faversham, Whitstable and Canterbury. “Much of what we use is sourced within a fivemile radius. For example, our pesto is from Rosewood Acres’ excess basil, old sourdough from Wild Bread and Grain & Hearth, and whatever cheeses Cheesemakers of Canterbury can’t sell.”

Providing truly sustainable

packaging is also a huge focus.

Meals are delivered in dabba tins or returnable glass jars. Newton regularly advises other small businesses on how they can do the same.

“I am passionate about showing people how we can do more to reduce food and packaging waste, as well as using food for health. If there is enough space for all the supermarkets out there, there’s enough for all of our small businesses to thrive alongside each other.”

THE LITTLE KATSU KITCHEN

@CAFE + KITCHEN

61 Harbour Street Whitstable CT5 1AG 01227 276941 Cafeandkitchen.co.uk @thelittlekatsukitchen Take out and dine in

“Whitstable’s Secret Smokery”

www.thenativebubble.com

whitstable whistler

FOOD

27

Photography © Sam Grady

Nourishing the whole family with Minno Kitchen One of those small businesses is Minno Kitchen, the creation of Katy Oliver. Having worked in event catering and private cheffing for years, Oliver started delivering home-cooked nutritious meals, with the family market in mind: “The idea is to make things accessible and simple, allowing people to eat seasonally and nourish themselves and their family without it being complicated.”

Minno boasts a menu of freezerfriendly children’s meals delivered biweekly, as well as fortnightly family dinners.

“Our food nods to the seasons,” she says, “but the main thread that runs through our menus is food that makes people feel loved and the pride I have in the relationships with my suppliers. From Staines and Jim’s Family Butchers here in Whitstable, to Rosewood Acres and Cheesemakers of Canterbury.

“It’s a conversation Katy from Wasted Kitchen and I have all the time. We feel strongly that supporting one another gives a better offering for the community. It’s about all helping each other out. If we have learned anything from the last year or so it’s to be kinder to one another.”

OPENING TIMES Lunch: Tue - Sun 12 noon - 2.30pm Evenings: Tue - Mon 6pm - 9.30pm

Birdies is one of Whitstable’s oldest family run restaurants, serving brilliant locally caught fresh fish features alongside great French classics.

41 Harbour Street, Whitstable CT5 1AH Tel: 01227 265337 www.birdiesrestaurant.co.uk

28

CRAFT

IN FULL BLOOM Photographer Millie Clinton

Nancy Hamling of Box and Bloom proves wreaths are for life, not just for Christmas.

Our editor Cheri Percy speaks to her about her blossoming career to date, foraging for foliage and how to craft your own door-hanging showstoppers with these simple steps

W

hen they coined the phrase “hostess with the mostest”, they might very well have been thinking of Box and Bloom founder Nancy Hamling.

On social occasions you’re likely to find her rustling up a string of paper garlands, assembling an ambitious doughnut wall, or packing up the perfect party bags. It’s clear as soon as we enter Hamling’s home that she’s a dab hand at putting on a spread, with the smooth sounds of Sneaker Pimps on the stereo and her signature cheese platter out on the kitchen worktop.

This creative flair has run through all her projects to date, she explains, as we begin setting up in the living room with one of her silvery landscape paintings hung above the sofa. “I went to KIAD [Kent Institute of Art and Design] in Canterbury. My first degree was in illustration. So I was like, ‘Right, illustration is the thing.’ I had an exhibition at the Horsebridge and sold a few paintings, but I didn’t love it.”

Despite her lack of enthusiasm for the sales approach, Hamling has always been a bit of a hustler, making her journey from putting on largescale corporate events to budding wreath-maker not so difficult to plot.

Whitstable whistler

whitstable whistler

“I’ve always tried setting up little sideline things. My mum and dad lived on an apple farm when I was young. I used to pick their apples every summer and sell them in my dad’s pharmacy,” she says, animatedly.

It was during her time studying in Brighton when she confronted the possibility that she might be on to something: “I realised the more events I did, that [this] was what I was good at.” But another coastline had captured her heart so, after securing her masters in event management, Hamling migrated back to her hometown in Kent, just outside Canterbury. “I’m such a Kentish girl,” she says. “Brighton never felt like me. I never embedded myself down there.” Instead, Hamling found herself among the same apple farms where she’d begun her side-hustles as a child.

And the same setting that she and her husband Greg would marry in, under a monster marquee in the garden.

For an innate organiser, it’s unsurprising to hear that the ceremony was far from modest. Her wishlist wedding was something that Hamling had been dreaming up for years. “I was that little girl when I was smaller, someone would give me a piece of paper and I would plan out on a map: ‘This is where my marquee is going to go. This is where my vicar is going to stand.’” So when she landed a job at the Night Yard, a wedding venue in Bridge, it was a dream gig combining her artistic degree alongside her decades of events experience.

“That cemented for me that you can do the creativity bit and events because all the events I’d done before were really corporate and hadn’t really had that creative side,” she reasons.

It was during her time working at the Night Yard, surrounded by all the staggering centrepieces and bridal blooms, that another business venture idea began to blossom. While a lot of the on-site florists had a love of flowers, they didn’t necessarily have a knack for the customer-facing side of things, as Hamling discovered. “I did a flower workshop for someone’s hen do and I was like, ‘Maybe flowers are a thing I’m good at.’” Since then, Box and Bloom has been dishing out gift boxes and wreath-making kits jam-packed with local produce.

You’ll find everything from Garage Coffee to Faversham-based soapmaker Bohemian and Flower in and among the tissue paper-lined parcels.

This October Hamling is running a fresh string of wreath-making workshops and believes that there’s something beneficial about all coming together to create something collaboratively. Even if you don’t identify as a typically “creative type”.

“I love creating an experience for people and seeing them develop new skills and come away with something they are (mostly) really proud of,” she says with a light laugh.

CRAFT

29

So, ahead of those autumn workshops, we asked Hamling to share some of her insider tips when it comes to finding your base foliage, creative considerations, and a few simple steps for getting started on your wreath.

S SEASONAL STARTING POINT Use foliage as your base. Pick something that’s quite plain like rosemary, lavender, or eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus is especially good because it’s got lots of leaves in a small area.

Avoid stems and sprigs that have too much stalk with several bigger leaves. Conifer is good, and spruce for Christmas wreaths. Variegated ivy also tends to have strong leafage.

Gather around eight different types of foliage to work with alongside a few key statement sprigs. This could be a found pheasant plume on the roadside or a couple of foraged pine cones from your next woodland walk.

The Kent countryside is abundant with hops at this time of year, which could make a nice addition to any autumn wreath.

Plants like cow parsley, poppy heads and thistles dry well. Consider spray-painting them white or gold depending on your other décor.

Team both dried and fresh flowers and foliage: “Wreaths work well when you’ve got a bit of a mixture of both.”

Find a locally sourced selection of dried flowers at Essentially Hops up in Bekesbourne (just outside of Canterbury), or why not explore some smaller sellers on Etsy.

CREATIVE CONSIDERATIONS Find your style: Do you prefer a messy or structured style? Are you a symmetrical or asymmetrical fan?

This will give you a good grounding for your wreath-building.

Try out different textures: Avoid choosing very small-leafed foliage as this won’t give enough depth to the overall design and you’ll be wiring your bunches on for days!

Consider your colours: With a Christmas wreath, you may want to stick with traditional rich reds and garish golds, or maybe you’ll embrace a cooler blue Christmas like the King himself.

Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest: Glean inspiration from others in this crafty corner of the internet and save to your own boards for upcoming seasons.

Spots on Box and Bloom’s autumn virtual workshop are £45 per person including floristry scissors, dried flowers, wreath ring, and Kentish Refreshments. Book your spot via @boxandbloom_uk

MAKE YOUR OWN

1

Cut your foliage into small manageable pieces, no more than 4 inches long, and put into piles per variety.

2

Bundle your sprigs together to begin working with them along the frame and layer them across three ways like a fan.

3

It’s important to decide which bit is your top and then stopping once you’ve done added a few elements to see how it will hang and then building up from that.

4

When you’re adding in a statement object, build up around where you’re going to add things or do some longer bits like the statement feather or poised pinecone.

We'll help you build your nest

(WHATEVER IT IS, WEʻVE GOT YOUR BACK)

Need a mortgage or remortgage?

Get in touch with us, quoting ref: WW0921 Mortgage brokers based in Margate & Whitstable, with access to the whole mortgage market YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.

Email: sally.geldard@cormorantmortgages.com FCA No. 780438

//CREATIVE //GRAPHIC DESIGN //WEBSITE DESIGN

BY THE SEASIDE//MARGATE WWW.BUBBLESTUDIOS.CO.UK

whitstable whistler

SPORT

GAME CHANGER

Local writing gem Julie Wassmer explains how her work alongside Tankerton FC is tackling accessibility to bring the sport to residents with physical and learning disabilities

I

first learned about the charity Tankerton Football Club in 2016.

I was invited to meet children and parents involved in the club’s deaf children’s football team. I spent a memorable evening discovering how gaining access to grassroots football benefits children and adults with physical and learning disabilities, and I’ve been a strong supporter of the club’s work ever since.

So, when I was recently informed that the club was seeking help with kit and sponsorship for their newly formed pan-disability football team, I discussed this with Acorn TV, the broadcast streaming service responsible for the TV series based on my crime novels, Whitstable Pearl,

hoping the company might be able to help. I was delighted when they did so. In August Acorn’s marketing director Jason Gray and I were invited to meet the team and their coaches at their weekly training session – and in their new kit.

Blessed with a gloriously sunny day, we met not only the players but another sponsor of this special team – Kellie Barker. Barker is the truly inspirational special needs parent behind Born Anxious. The company provides sensory clothing for invisible disabilities while promoting inclusion and kindness. Born Anxious is a social enterprise with an ethos to encourage those living with autism to take part in clubs that allow them to reach their potential. It recently added the official Harvey Price autism awareness clothing range to its collection of innovative and fashionable sensory wear.

After watching the new pandisability team members playing that day, I talked to coach Tom Tsangarides. Training sessions are delivered by specialist coaches, because the young adults who attend have a range of disabilities.

The sessions therefore need to be

31

© Tankerton Football Club – pan disability team with Kellie Barker of Born Anxious, far right

adapted and differentiated accordingly. The new pandisability team benefits young adults of mixed gender who have left school and often live in residential care homes or attend day centres, including UK charity Mencap.

I also learned more about Tankerton FC’s ambition to develop seven pitches on their new site on the bends between Whitstable and Herne Bay as well as enhancing their nature reserve. Funding will help to secure the new ground for the whole club, which currently consists of over 300 players across 25 different teams including boys, girls, men, ladies, veterans, and the teams for deaf players and those with disabilities.

Tankerton FC is a progressive, community-based registered charity, and in 2019 its deaf children’s football team was awarded Kent FA’s Community Project of the Year. The ethos is to welcome all, regardless of disability or impairment. The club also aims to enter the pan-disability community by joining the Kent Disability Football League.

Individuals attending weekly sessions typically face significant inequalities on a daily basis. They are also invariably excluded from mainstream sporting activities.

The provision of meaningful sporting opportunities is not only fundamental to the club members’

physical and mental wellbeing but has also proven to be beneficial for improving social skills, coordination, cognition, confidence and selfesteem.

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to secure the club’s new home ground, but it needs more help to reach its target of £20,000.

There are many rewards still available within the crowdfunder, including two newly added opportunities to explore the nature reserve at the site.

For a £15 donation, recipients can spend a morning bird watching in one of the three bird hides on the nature reserve. Pledge £20 and get a tour of the reserve and a half-day session of bee or butterfly watching.

If you feel you can support the club with a donation, no matter how small, I promise you it will be gratefully received and put to great community use. Hopefully, I might see you while I’m watching bees and butterflies in the nature reserve…

Visit the Tankerton FC crowdfunder here: crowdfunder.co.uk/TankertonFC Find out more about Born Anxious here: facebook.com/bornanxious2018 Julie Wassmer has donated her fee for this article to Tankerton Football Club

32

Whitstable whistler

COMEDY

THE COMEDY COMEBACK Writer Bess Browning

W

hen graced with Oliver Double’s perpetual funniness, it is no surprise that he has been inspiring future generations of stand-up comedians at the University of Kent for the last 20 years. He launched the Funny Rabbit Comedy Club in 2019, showcasing a line-up of acts armed with side-splitting repertoire. As the curtains reopen on the arts, Double reflects on a lifetime of laughter.

It has been more than two decades since Double moved to Whitstable, but his roots were planted on a very different coastline 250 miles away: Liverpool. He spent most of his childhood in Lincoln where, sitting on his family sofa in front of a grainy TV, he had his first experience of the comedy greats that would inspire him for years to come: Monty Python, the Goodies and the Young Ones.

“I remember watching these programmes on television and really laughing,” he recalls. “But in Lincoln at the time it was quite a boring part of the world with one tiny cinema and certainly no comedy. There wasn’t much inspiration outside the TV.” It was not immediately obvious to the teenager that he wanted to be a comedian but, interested in the arts, he embarked on a degree in drama at Exeter University.

“While I was there,” he explains, “there was a small group of students who were tasked with creating a

programme on alternative theatre.

They came up with Chaotic Cabaret, a space where performers could show their talents in exchange for a can of lager. There was poetry, comedy, musicians.” Spurred on by curiosity and, of course, the beer, Double decided to give it a go. “I had been in a few school plays but being on stage was pretty alien to me by that point – especially on my own. But I got up there and did a couple of things – a satire of an arrogant Tory and then a mock Shakespeare improvisation. And when I heard people laughing, that’s when the penny dropped.”

Over the next ten years, Double made a name for himself in the comedy arena, setting up Last Laugh in Sheffield – still the city’s longest-running comedy club – and performing across the nation to audiences in the thousands. His acts shifted and developed as more inspiration came his way. From rapping while just wearing a pair of army boots and boxer shorts, to performing his entire show playing the mandolin, he built an eclectic showreel.

At the top of his game, he found himself on the primetime TV show Pebble Mill and cracking jokes on Radio 4.

The author of numerous books and articles on stand-up comedy, Double admits it hasn’t always been a room full of laughs though: “Every comedian has experienced a show with an audience who don’t laugh, or they talk through your act, and of course there’s often heckling. You feel rejected and useless. But as you get more experienced, you weigh it up and realise the good shows outweigh the bad.” These are some of the words of wisdom Double has enlightened his students with at the University of Kent since 1999.

But despite becoming a lecturer, Double has never stopped performing and has brought his witty spark to the Bubble on numerous occasions. You may have caught him at the Horsebridge Centre, the Whitstable Labour Club, and the Duke of Cumberland. “The town has been the source of inspiration for some of my stand-up shows. I love the community feel, the feisty council meetings, and the fantastic people. It is such a great place to live.”’

He has also taken inspiration from personal experiences over the years, including

making jokes out of how selfconscious he was about his body as a teenager. “I once created a show based on the harrowing experience of one of my sons being rushed to hospital after being diagnosed with diabetes. Both of my sons, now 22 and 24, have type 1 diabetes. I was then asked to perform that show for the charity, Diabetes UK, in front of hundreds of parents and families with children with diabetes. The reaction there was incredible – something I’ll never forget.”

Assisted by an old friend, Double launched the Funny Rabbit Comedy Club at the Gulbenkian Theatre in 2019, named after the plague of bunnies infamous for digging up Kent University’s grounds. But when Covid hit they were forced to adapt like the rest of the country, putting shows on virtually and eventually socially distanced.

But now Double is looking forward to a return to normality. He’s itching to teach his students away from Zoom and hear infectious laughter reverberating between the theatre walls during a stand-up gig, the sweet sound he has spent his life engrossed in.

The Funny Rabbit Comedy Club begins again in September.

For more information, follow them @funnyrabbitcomedy or visit thegulbenkian.co.uk

Modern, contemporary living • Lighting Solutions • Storage Systems • Bedroom Furniture

• Outdoor Furniture & Accessories • Sofas & Lounge Chairs • Dining Tables & Chairs

Kent's exclusive dealer for Vitra, HAY, String, Fatboy & much more

01843 220088 I shop@papilloninteriors.co.uk I www.papilloninteriors.co.uk Visit our Showroom at 40 Fort Hill, Margate, Kent, CT9 1 HD

Set in the heart of Tankerton Gift & Coffee Shop – Lunches – Homemade Cakes Cream Teas – Ice Creams – Dog Friendly 134 Tankerton Road – 01227 264950 www.thebearstradingcompany.co.uk

34

Whitstable whistler

MUSIC

Writer Cheri Percy

Foolhardy folk musician Beans on Toast (Jay McAllister) speaks to our Editor Cheri Percy on his decade-spanning career and the magic behind his recent move to the coast

F

or an artist who has performed at every Glastonbury Festival since 2007, it probably shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Jay McAllister, better known by his stage name Beans On Toast, hasn’t stopped playing over the last few years. “There was a time last summer when the rule of six was in action [and] there’s not much music that fits into that. But I do! My phone didn’t stop ringing,” he jokes over his pint in the courtyard of The Duke.

McAllister began making music growing up across the Thames Estuary in his band Jellicoe performing in a “high-pitched American accent with a low-slung Mustang guitar.” But even with his innovative intonation, the songwriter landed on his feet. The group bagged a hallowed John Peel session after popping a CD into late great disc jockey’s pigeon hole at the Radio One studios. “Sounds like such simpler times, doesn’t it?” he says, wistfully.

On the back of that broadcasting luck, the band relocated to London but things didn’t quite fall into place.

“The bass player didn’t come and I realised that I wasn’t American,” he laughs. “That was when I realised that if I was going to sing songs, I wasn’t gonna do them in an American accent anymore. That was when I found my identity and I think fighting back, that’s where the name came from.”

Propelled by this patriotism, McAllister immersed himself in the North London scene holing up in Holloway Road’s Nambucca pub.

Here, he began running regular Sensible Sundays with former drummer Dave Danger. The events drew huge crowds to the infamous watering hole, hosting rising indie names like The Maccabees, Jamie T and Laura Marling. It was only then, that the songwriter decided to step out from the role of the booker and back

Beans on Toast © Curt Walsh

TOAST OF THE TOWN

onto the stage. “I’d always written songs so if a band didn’t show up, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’ll play!’” he recalls.

“My original plan was to form a band.

Then one year in Glasgow at an open mic thing, I got up and did my songs.

Halfway through the first song, I was like, ‘I do not need a band.’”

A decade on and McAllister has been diligently releasing new music every year since Beans On Toast’s inception. His debut Standing on a Chair (2009) landed amid the media’s love affair with the nu-folk revial (fittingly produced by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons) while his last release before lockdown ominously grappled with the bleak future of the human race recorded with rockabilly multi-instrumentalists Kitty and Lewis Durham (of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis fame).

His latest record, Survival of The Friendliest, takes a slightly different tack brought on by his decision to move to Whitstable with his wife (who grew up here) and three-year-old daughter. This serendipitous moment is something he reflects on in his book, Foolhardy Folk Tales. “The last chapter is how we moved to Whitstable because the stars aligned. At the start of lockdown, we wouldn’t have even had the money to lay down a deposit and all this crazy stuff happened [so that] all of a sudden, we did.”

In his career to date, Beans On Toast has toured the States

teaming up with Irish-American punk band Flogging Molly, played one-off shows in the Netherlands, Germany and South America and, back in September 2015, he followed longtime friend and producer Frank Turner on his headline tour of America. Suffice to say, relocating to a small seaside town wasn’t exactly on McAllister’s mind. But then the universe has a weird way of making its intentions known, as he admits. “The whole record was riddled with a lot of coincidence.

Real magic. Normally, I work on a yearly schedule. I’ll do festivals that summer, record in September, and then send it straight to press and it’ll be out in December.” So it was quite the curveball when, in the middle of June due to COVID-19 delays at the vinyl pressing plants, he got a call from his supplier to tell the musician they’d need the album finished, recorded and mastered in six weeks.

“I knew I’d written most of it. I had one song left, and that night, I put the phone down and I wrote the album closer. Then I was like, ‘Right, who’s gonna do the record with me?’”

Imagining his dream scenario in his head, McAllister tapped up some old friends including fellow English songwriter Blaine Harrison of The Mystery Jets for production, Rosie Bristow from Holy Moly and The Crackers on accordion and Michael Albama Jackson of Oh My God, It’s

The Church for his gospel pipes.

Even the setting felt like a divine intervention with Harrison suggesting they explore Big Jelly Studios in nearby Ramsgate which, while seemingly looking like your regular suburban street door round the back of Tesco, happens to be an old church harbouring a guitar that Jimi Hendrix once played. “From putting the phone down and hearing ‘You’ve got to do it by the end of July’, in six weeks, I had a finished album,” he says, gratefully.

The record came together over the summer solstice as the sun blazed outside and McAllister attempted vocal takes in his new Whitstable digs. Even then, the weather was busy brewing up an impressive accompanying light show. “There was one bit where I was recording the opening track, “A Beautiful Place”, and the sky lit up with lightning,” he recalls, gesticulating his arms widely.

“Recording the album was as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever known. When we finished, we all went swimming in the sea and held each other like ‘Yeah, we’ve done it.’

I’ve made a lot of albums [but] I’ve never done that. It’s like a Hollywood movie. But again it was tied to the move and the magic that is here.”

With Whitstable boasting its own stone circle up at Duncan Downs, a reflective spot to see elements of the past, present and future, our little seaside town feels like the perfect vantage point for Jay McAllister to do the same. Because while he might’ve travelled the globe as Beans on Toast, there’s truly no place like home. Especially when there’s magic on your side.

Jay McAllister celebrates his new album release at The Playhouse Theatre on 1 December IG: @beans.on.toast

whitstable whistler

the reading list With the nights drawing in, Beans On Toast songwriter Jay McAllister shares some of the books on his bedside table that have shaped his latest record, Survival of the Friendliest

The Book of Trespass NICK HAYES I learnt more from this book about being English than living here for 40 years. I had no idea that 97% of England’s rivers are privately owned and out of bounds to the public, let alone 92% of the countryside. In the book, Hayes trespasses on estates around the country, exploring the history of how a few men own so much land (spoiler alert – very unfairly!)

The book inspired the song “The Commons”. Since writing it, I’ve got involved with his Right to Roam campaign which reconnects the people of England with their countryside.

Jitterbug Perfume TOM ROBBINS Tom Robbins is my all-time favourite writer, by a long shot too. I love all his books and have read them all many times. For my 40th birthday last year, I treated myself by re-reading Jitterbug Perfume for the fifth time.

It seemed right as it’s a story about immortality. I think I might have enjoyed it this time more than ever, which says a lot about a book. More than just immortality, it’s a tale of friendship, love, and not conforming to the rules. Ever.

70 High Street, Whitstable, CT5 1BB 01227 263337 gatefieldsounds70@gmail.com

@GatefieldSounds

My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas as she knew I was a bit of a tree hugger. It’s a novel about Trees, which might not sound like it’s gonna blow your mind, but it sure did mine. In fact, after reading it, I will never look at a tree the same way again. I always liked them, but now I see them as all-knowing gods of awe and wonder. The day I finished the book, I sat down and wrote the song “Apples”, which ended up being a collaboration with legendary Bristol poet Dizraeli, who wrote a verse after reading the same book (it blew his mind too).

@gatefieldsounds

@Gatefieldsounds

On Connection KAE TEMPEST Kae is an old friend, and since the first time I saw them perform many moons ago at Glastonbury, I’ve been a die-hard fan. They continue to be a huge source of inspiration. I love Kae’s music, poems, novels, and also this book. Released during deepest darkest lockdown, this is a short non-fiction read about art, creativity, and how it connects us as humans. As usual with Kae’s work, it’s intelligent and fantastical yet completely relatable and humble.

Humankind RUTGER BREGMAN

The Overstory RICHARD POWERS

35

BOOKS

In a world full of bad news, this book was a lifeline. The Danish historian and modern thinker explains a revolutionary idea: humans beings are fundamentally good and how by believing this, we could reshape the future of the world. I found the album title amongst these pages and so many other reasons to be hopeful and happy.

Foolhardy Folk Tales BEANS ON TOAST Obviously, putting your own book into a list of suggested books is crass, but we’re all on the hustle, right? This, my second book, is a collection of stories about songwriting, touring, and blagging it. It’s out now, and I mention it here because the books’ closing chapter is the story of how my family and I came to live here in Whitstable and why we love it so.

Yo La Tengo Wed 17 Nov at 7:30pm

AN OUTSTANDING PREP & NURSERY SCHOOL in Broadstairs Virtual Open Day www.wellesleyhouse.org/virtual-open-day Private Tours Available Contact: admissions@wellesleyhouse.net

whitstable whistler

OPINION

Illustrator Alex Lee @storyofalex

Our resident wine guzzler Whitstable Blonde continues her quest to try all the sauvignon blancs in Whitstable as she kicks back for a tipple or two at down-home local the Fountain

W

e arrive at the Fountain to typically fine music – Iggy Pop growling I Wanna Be Your Dog. Fitting because, for years, you’d be welcomed to this gem of a backstreet boozer by Hachi, a Staffordshire bull terrier with the temperament of a kitten. The owner’s hound, she was obsessed with the leaf game – Hachi’s found a leaf, can you grab it? I’ve seen hardened builders broken by her speed. She still pays celebrity visits, but about 18 months ago that owner, Toby Slade, handed management to Royston Johnson and his labradors Sam and Betty. They can take a leaf or leave it.

On a warm autumn Friday at 5pm, the place is so rammed barmaid Abi Exley is setting extra tables along the olive tree-dotted walkway “pub garden”. A dubby funk track starts playing, mixing with the song of a goldfinch on a Sydenham Street roof.

In my quest to try all the sauvignon blancs in Whitstable, I’m on Chilean Luna Azul – rich and grassy with a hint of ginger. Mr. Blonde has a Dark Star Original. “The paradox is,” he muses, “it doesn’t look dark, but it tastes like chewy black liquorice.”

Mates Carol and Jelly Jim quaff their Becks (£4.40) and golden Bavarian ABK Hell (a fiver), with its signature glass tankard. Describe your tipple, Jim? He ruminates, offers, “Beer?”, then tangentially observes, “Did you know feet come in different shapes?”

He explains the formations. Remove my trainers. I have Egyptian feet.

And that’s the thing, you see – this is a down-home local with a bunch of friendly regulars, not a high-flown aficionado’s joint (although there *is* now a gin board, with everything from Ableforth’s Bathtub to Silent Pool and Seedlip). Three minutes from busy Harbour Street, you’d still have to know it’s here to find it. We paid £9.70 for an ale, decent-sized wine and Kettle Chips – there’s a pop-up street food gazebo at weekends – but you’d pay for the atmosphere. The place first opened in 1862, when there’d be at least one pub on every terraced street, and it would’ve been full of the same warmth, and the fishermen who lived in these tiny cottages and kept their boats in their gardens. You can find archives of the Fountain’s past owners (Horace Oates, 1922; James Hogben, 1930...) and a photo of Jack Robinson, the publican’s son, sitting on a Cairo aircraft gun in

“This is a down-home local with a bunch of friendly regulars, not a high-flown aficionado’s joint”

37

1942, reading the Whitstable Times.

It helps that it’s in the conservation area; it should be conserved.

The current vibe, with a slightly frayed, hippyish dive bar feel, suits old and young. Inside you’ll find aged wooden tables, mismatched chairs, a fairy-lit Indian grotto and, on the walls, vintage gig posters (Duke Ellington at the Paramount) and gonzo cartoon characters painted by Jamie (Tank Girl, Gorillaz) Hewlett. According to the toilet’s framed certificate, it’s twinned with one in Burundi.

By now, Mr. Blonde is on Orchard Pig Reveller (£4.60), which comes in a glass with an elegant porker etched on it. “Ah, it’s cider. Orchard, should’ve worked that out.” Not a cider man, he loves this one; bittersweet, “appley, caramelly” and with a tang of lime.

Royston appears to start his shift in a neon orange Hawaiian shirt, beard trimmed to a devilish point. “Hello, beautiful people…” White-haired Bob shuffles toward the door for a top-up. He’s in a yellow windcheater.

“Expecting rain, Bob?” someone enquires. “Don’t go down the harbour, they’ll drag you on a trawler.” Bob spots Royston coming toward him and rears back, shading his eyes.

As I sip my Altana di Vico, an ultradry, still pinot grigio rosé with crisp notes of pear and rhubarb (£4.50 for a medium glass; ask for the wine list, there is one), and Jim confirms his ABK Hell is herby, floral, “and lightly minty, almost like a health drink”, Abi trips over a vast Briard asleep by the planters – the pretty garden was a community project, everyone bringing seeds and bulbs, shells, windchimes, pebbles. The Briard’s unruffled in this zen environment, but Abi’s contrite. “Got enough water, mate? Let me do you a fresh one.” Roy glances around, checking locals, tourists, canines are well and happy, and we are. Love and peace.

The Fountain Inn, 29 Sydenham Street, Whitstable, CT5 1HW 07549 438854

38

Whitstable whistler

MEET THE MAKER: LYNDON DOUGLAS Writer

Duarte Figueira

Even after a period of global isolation, artist and architectural photographer Lyndon Douglas still found a way to connect with the town. Duarte Figueira meets the local creative to discuss vinyl album cover designs and the emotions of passengers arriving on the Empire Windrush

© Lyndon Douglas

L

yndon Douglas is clear about the inspiration for 28 Days of Silence, his recent exhibition at the Horsebridge Arts Centre.

“It was my gift to Whitstable. We’d recently moved to the town and found the people we met really welcoming.

Then the late 2020 lockdown hit. The work was my reaction to the contrast between the melancholia of our closed down streets and the ongoing life and movement along its shoreline and out at sea.”

So each morning for 28 days in November, Douglas followed a ritual of recording the sea’s everchanging canvas from West Beach.

The results force the viewer to take a moment, slow down and just be. The photographic images display a striking range of moods and perspectives of Whitstable’s seascape. While the carefully edited four-and-a-half minute film reflects both the sea’s neverending energy and the heavy stillness of that period. It is yin and yang art.

After a while, locals passing through his working spot started to strike up conversations. So the piece was also an immersion into the community, something he most admires in the work of one of his heroes, the CzechFrench Magnum photographer Joseph Koudelka.

He’s now looking to find a suitable facade near Whitstable Harbour onto

which he can project and loop the short film to show it more widely. He hopes the local authority could help to see this through to fruition and says councillor Chris Cornell and the deputy harbourmaster Glyn HallEdwards have already shown their support.

An established architectural photographer, Douglas has been exhibited nationally and internationally. His recent invitation to show at the Venice Biennale as part of the Time, Space and Existence exhibit was postponed, but he hopes it will still happen at some point.

Recently the Architects Journal (AJ) featured his images of a small common room outside the town hall in Hargeisa, Somaliland, for which Rashid Ali Architects won the AJ 2021 Small Projects award. A tiny project, says Lyndon, but one that felt very pure.

His early creative influences included his uncles Stafford, an illustrator, and Dennis, a draughtsman. Another was his early and ongoing obsession with the designs on reggae, soul and other vinyl album covers. He got his first camera in his teens, a chunky East-German Praktica MTL-3. Later he went to Camberwell School of Art, where he was a member of a rebellious group who chose to only show photographic work in their final show. After

whitstable whistler

“I went back and started photographing those spaces without the models,” he jokes.

Early clients included thenunknown but now renowned architect David Adjaye. Many other prestigious UK and international commissions followed, including for Richard Rogers and Eldridge Smerin. He denies that these architects seek to determine how his images or film will present their

Tilbury Bridge, Tilbury Docks © Lyndon Douglas

Limited edition prints of Lyndon’s pieces are available at lyndon@ lyndondouglas.com or find out more on Architectural Photography at lyndondouglas.com

love local love local love local

“The work was my reaction to the melancholia of our closed streets and movement along our shoreline”

work. Rather, he takes on board their vision of the project but then usually receives their trust in presenting it photographically. For example, he suggested to the client designing the vast Red Sea Gateway mega-port in Jeddah the concept of photographing it as a human body. The client was enthusiastic and the resultant images highlight the port as the heart of a great body reaching both into the sea and back into the ancient Saudi city.

Other recent work includes a photographic exploration of Tilbury Docks, the historic arrival point for West Indian migrants on the Empire Windrush in June 1948. After the UK exhibition at the Port of Tilbury, some of the images were also displayed at the Great Huts exhibition in Portland, Jamaica in 2018.

“I wanted to ‘feel’ the site, rather than shoot it straightforwardly as a documentarist. So it was more abstract, to communicate a sense of the Windrush arrivals’ impressions.

Such as the clock tower which would have been the first structure the passengers might have registered, and also through the graffiti, the shoreline, even the moss growing under the bridge.”

As for living in Whitstable, he says it’s perfect. He and his family have everything they need in a small space – the High Street, schools, friends, the beach, the tennis courts, and of course, Rock Bottom Records for his beloved vinyl.

GIFTED CLAIRVOYANT & MEDIUM ONLINE INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO

Offering a bespoke high-end service on an affordable budget.

Residential / commercial design packages available.

Providing you with a clear design vision, photo realistic visuals of your new space and clickable item shopping list.

Is your future uncertain?

I have the answers you seek!

Powerful spells available!

Immediate telephone consultations: 07812 333853 IG: @ivy.psychic

E: hello@whitstableview.co.uk IG: @WhitstableView

Do you need help with your admin?

Offering business support to sole traders, Pink Spaghetti covers the whole of the east Kent area, from Whitstable down to Deal. We can give you a 25th hour in the day!

THE PALACE CINEMA BROADSTAIRS

welcomes you back! Join us for the best new independent films from around the world plus classics, holiday fun and special events.

E: vikkie.richmond@pinkspaghetti.co.uk T: 0333 355 6621 FB: facebook.com/PinkSpagThanet

A: Harbour St, Broadstairs CT10 IET W: thepalacecinema.co.uk IG: @thepalacecinema FB: @PalaceCinemaBroadstairs

Bright modern two bedroom holiday cottage on a peaceful private development, just a gentle stroll to beautiful beaches and Whitstable’s bustling harbour.

Sleeps four in super comfy kingsize beds. Sunny garden and off-street parking. Dog friendly.

Based in Margate, RECOVERED BY OLLIE provides quality bespoke upholstery services utilising both traditional and modern upholstery techniques for domestic, trade and commercial clients. Please contact via email for a free quotation.

W: RecoveredbyOllie.com E: ollie@recoveredbyollie.com IG: @RecoveredByOllie T: 07789 720 477

T: 07881 613 248 W: whitstablethejolly.co.uk E: whitstablethejolly@outlook.com IG: @whitstablethejolly PIE FACTORY is a unique art space

located in an historic building in Margate Old Town. With a weekly schedule of diverse exhibitions, the gallery offers something special for both visitors and artists.

Now taking bookings for 2023.

MADE IN WHITSTABLE

IG: @piefactorymargate FB: Pie Factory Margate W: piefactorymargate.co.uk

10th Anniversary Year ART SHOW – 40 Artists 12–25 November, 9am-4pm every day Paintings, ceramics, art glass, jewellery, prints and cards

A: Beach Creative, Gas House, Beach Street, Herne Bay CT6 5PT E: madeinwhitstable@gmail.com

Subscribe to the Whitstable Whistler for only £19.95 per year, or all our magazines for £35.95 per year, and get every issue delivered to your door. margatemercury.com/subscribe

39

love local love local love local

completing a Masters in photography at the Royal College of Art, he arrived at architectural photography via fashion and portraiture work. He realised he’d got a calling for it after choosing to photograph fashion models in gritty urban environments, such as under the Westway in Notting Hill.

ADVERTORIAL

DESIGN

|

REFURBISHMENT

|

RESTORATION

fred-ginger.co.uk

|

BUILD

|

fredandgingerhomes

LANDSCAPES