Journeys to Prospect Cottage, Derek Jarman's home and garden - the beginning of a creative journey for me?

I love that you can have a series of seemingly unrelated experiences which somehow connect and bring particular issues/themes to the fore - almost as though a greater power is sending you a message or suggesting a direction. 3 events I attended recently I feel form such a 'triad'.

Firstly, I was lucky enough to be able to visit not only Derek Jarman's Garden but to have a tour of his home (and shrine) too, thanks to the lovely Sotiris!

Dungeness sits on the very end of a promontory sticking out of the UK, between Hastings and Dover. It is part of the largest shingle beach in Europe, a British desert, that continues to grow (apparently it is 3 miles larger than it was 1000 years ago (?)! One day it'll reconnect us, once more, to Europe replacing the land bridge of 'pre-history' (Brexiteers, eat your hearts out lol!).

It's an extremely arid, dry and hauntingly beautiful evocative environment with plants (and traditional 'sheds') specific to the area that grow nowhere else in the UK. The landscape reminds me of Norfolk with its huge, vast vistas of sky and sea, sense of space and connection.

View of buildings, landscape and sky: Dungeness

There is very powerful spiritual presence; a sense of 'other', of elemental-ness about the place; somewhere that was, for millennia, below water, under the sea, a hidden, maritime landscape and is now an area beautiful in its desolateness, space, and its backdrop of Dungeness Nuclear Power Station (which also continuously roars quietly as background music even though, I think, it is no longer in use). Apparently, the Power Station lights up at night (fluorescent green?) and is quite something to see from the 100 year old fisher people's cottages on this shingle beach (another return visit is necessary).

View from the Hythe/Dymchurch miniature railway across Dungeness; Nuclear Power Station in the background

The universe meant Derek Jarman to have his home here. He'd seen the cottage he moved into on various visits to the area and, soon after his HIV diagnosis, he visited again, having just inherited a sum of money following the death of his father, to find a 'for sale' sign on the same cottage. He lived here with his friend/love Keith, for years, until his death; Keith then remained until he. too, died.

The cottage, even though I guess, a museum of sorts - and definitely a place of pilgrimage for many Jarman fans, art and garden enthusiasts, is no display of musty reified items but feels very much a home (with beautiful, considered, significant altar-like structures, sculptures, paintings, found objects and stunning innovative furniture - much made by Jarman's friends and associates) into which, at any time, Derek and/or Keith could walk (what would they make of 4 unknown visitors and a guide standing there?).

The back of Derek Jarman's Cottage (black with yellow windows) taken from the Hythe/Dymchurch miniature railway

Side view of Derek Jarman's Garden and Cottage, Dungeness, with text from John Donne 'The Sun Rising'

The visit resonates still: the strength of the spiritual presence, the amazing and resilient garden creating something from nothing, the sadness of (so many) lives and bright talents taken so early, the joy in the beauty and natural elemental power Jarman found in the minutiae of 'everyday' objects, the role and significance of myth in his (and our) life.

My mother loved her copy of derek jarman's garden, photographs by Howard Sooley, (Thames and Hudson, 1995) even though she wasn't a gardener! Something of the elements alluded to above and his great sensitivity, creativity and love of living things and elements comes through both in the book, and when visiting his home and garden. In her (and his) memory, the book accompanied me to read as I travelled - she would have loved to have had the opportunity to visit.

Significantly, I left my bag with all my worldly goods (well, many!) at the miniature railway station there, only discovering my forgetfulness that evening when going through the Blackwell Tunnel on our return to London! This meant a return journey by public transport the following day (including a trip on the miniature railway), a walk by the sea and exposure to the unique beautiful fantastic spiritual myth and tragedy that is Dungeness.

To book a visit to Derek Jarman's Cottage contact www.creativefolkestone.org.uk Prospect Cottage - Creative Folkestone

By car the journey from London takes about 2.5 hours

By Public Transport from London - train to Folkestone. Bus 102 from Folkestone Bus Station to Hythe. Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature railway to Dungeness. Takes about 2.5 - 3 hours

David Rhys Jones — Derek Jarman's Garden & Dungeness Beautiful and evocative works based on the cottage and garden

Medley, Robert, 1905–1994 | Art UK Derek Jarman's tutor at Slade. Powerful pieces by him in Prospect Cottage