The Changing Face of Folkestone Harbour…10 Years On
Ten Years on from the date of first being fully opened to the public that is and we all know how lovely it is down there don’t we?
This photo made later but on that very first night that public were permitted take for advantage for the first time via the place we could never access as kids and enjoy that lovely walk over the bridge across the harbour and onto the new look station, this was March 2018.
There’s a second photo here though, taken three years previous and shows what it was like before all that investment (just after there had been some tidying too!) Click and see…
Hopefully the difference comes as a bit of a shock
It’s been far too easy for people to forget, not that many ever actually know nor realised what a terrible conditon most of the site had gotten into over the decades of neglect.
Had they even begun to consider that, maybe there would have been less negativity online about it all, some of which I’m disappointed to note this week, still goes on. (might address one or tow of those a bit later 😉
So let’s start with a look at the station
It was for a while accessible to everyone, it shouldn’t have been, rules and regulations you understand were also irresponsibly neglected. As it was, not a safe place to have all and sundry wandering around in.
So let us proceed…
What Some Folk, in 2012, Think It Was Like Then (Some still do!)
Yeah, those idyllic photos are what people want it to have been like before it was sold, but even when those photos were taken in 1991 the decay was busily being disguised in order to host those events.
So now let’s look at what it was actually like when the current owners took posession it shall we…
These Photos Speak Volumes
Taken over the preceding couple and prior to works commencing shot on a mixture of film in 35mm and medium format, & medium format digital. I don’t need to caption these photos, they speak for themselves…
Walk Away
Prior to the work starting as per the rest of the site, things needed recording so let’s take a look…you’re going to love this, starting with what will have been the happiest thermostat in the world at that time! 😀
Now to the fun bit and yes, some of what we found did give us a good chuckle. A very British public sector / institutional / old boys left to cope with being ignored as the managers build their careers on other things, sort of thing!
Seen it before. The chaps on duty there, doing what they’d been doing for many years but now, with no managerial care, credit or appreciation…and they coped exactly the same way as the old chaps I worked with on CCTV under those same criteria!
These guys kept things working, they kept things safe. I’d imagine confrontations with BR on the basis of what cannot be legally ignored and such, and that’s reflected in what was pretty much an URBEX situation for a photographer.
You see, the day the station ended officially it’s purpose in life, the guys laid off or retired and so as they left they rinsed their cups, put them down and went home for the last time, leaving what for me, what was a fantastic find!
Oh dear that was funny, most other annotations being the weather on a particular day. Yes, that is the remains of a pigeon on the floor. It’s last know occupant.
What you see it how it was, my most favourite item, the one that really shows the lack of organisational care being the year planner behind the desks there. BR being too tight to buy them a new one so the dates Tippexed out and written back in!
Next door the storage room, what a mess. Exploded paint and pigeon poop, beneath there were some interesting bit, signs and stuff that, like anything interesting on this site, taken away and saved for some later purpose.
A Bridge too Far
I suppose this installation did become a bit iconic…but ONLY once it was known that it was to be removed, prior to that it was just here.
Many the noises coming from the usual naysayers but now from the artistically minded within the Creative Quarter I recall, suddenly finding a love of “brutalist 1970s” architecture.
For me, the way it was removed, being cut in half was a bit of a shame, it would have been great to see the sections, it was bolted together in sections you see, an off the shelf mail order piece in effect.
Installations like this were once quite uniform, they could be found all arount the country. However I did consider that not withstanding their poor condition, those sections may have been desirable to locals to make garden stuff with perhaps?
An idea I suppose however there is a BUT…
The concertina shape of these fibreglass sections doubled the surface area facing the sun so they got hot. Very hot.
With each end capped off with large south facing glass panes, there was no airflow whatsoever on hot days. Cooler air unable to rise up the stairs due to the hot air occupying all that space.
Bback in the day it was not unusual that on a hot day there could be people feinting when crossing over it due to lack of oxygen! YES really!!
From the photos you can see that, in typical British Rail style, in an attempt to prevent that the guys installed what are actually air vents like the ones fitted to fireplaces when gas fires were installed in homes. You gotta laugh!
Anyway it’s gone now and in hindsight that was the right choice. Nobody misses it. The old station even now ten years on, clean lines, tidy, light and tidily airy. Free of clutter.
The same applies further up the line with that second bridge, a crumbling monstrocity in the end, an ugly lump of concrete clutter serving no practical purpose in life AT ALL. If left, spoiling the look we now love.
Even then those naysayers came out online, quoting that old adage: “Folkestone’s Heritage” etc
Again, loads of these around the country. Ref-fab “mail order” from the 1930s I suppose and suffering the concrete rot that so many stuctures of that age did.
I’m leaving you here with the photos I could get. Sorry, it was so unsafe, that condition legally designated so I nobodywas permitted to even step on the stairs thus I couldn’t get shots of the crossing, sorry folks.
Do you miss it? No of course you don’t.
So, in no particular order here’s some shots made that show just a little of the work that went into making it what it is today, but what I want you to do is to image how much went into this both in terms of passion and money…
A note to the naysayers: please do also bear in mind that not a single one of you was ever asked to pay a penny towards this, nor has anyone ever been charge a penny to go onto it.
