Pink floyd the wall album cover images for round cakes
Wading through the shingle as the sun sets, the sky takes on an orangey hue. It’s actually a shingle headland, surrounded by the English Channel.įor me, there’s something Daliesque about the flat land and big skies. Yet, being on the Kent coast less than two hours from London, it gets too much rain and lacks the extremity of temperatures necessary to qualify as a desert. It’s often misrepresented as Britain’s only desert, and it’s easy to see why - you could almost be in Arizona, except, instead of Joshua trees and agave there’s viper’s-bugloss and wild sea kale. Even Banksy left his mark on one of the derelict fisherman’s sheds scattered along the beach. Musicians who’ve used it as a backdrop include Pink Floyd (album cover) and Nicki Minaj (music video). She’s not the only artist to have been lured here the film director Derrick Jarman made his home here too. Browsing through Helen’s gallery in the timber hut next door, it’s obvious the focus of her work is Dungeness and its unique sense of place. She lives on the beach and works on her paintings from a studio in her garden. “Some people really don’t like it here it hasn’t got any of the things they need from life, but there are so many people that do,” says Helen. Perhaps that’s why it flies below the radar as a place to visit for so many. Its slightly post-apocalyptic aura isn’t for everyone, though. Like many others drawn to its stark, open landscapes, I’ve been coming here to escape London for years. The ability to find beauty in a nuclear power station (and ignore it when it emits an explosion) might reveal something about the kind of person who loves Dungeness. “Sometimes, when it does pop it’s quite loud, but it’s only steam… I think it’s quite beautiful.
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“I hardly notice it until it makes a noise,” says local artist Helen Gillian. As we clamber up the brow of the shingle bank, Dungeness’ nuclear power station emerges over the top, humming away gently.