TDC press release
The giant shell lady of Margate has been hoisted into position on the town’s Harbour Arm today (Thursday 27 November).
The sculpture, created by artist Ann Carrington and commissioned by the Margate Renewal Partnership, is a towering nine feet high and is made entirely of cast bronze.
Created with the aim of encouraging people to visit the Old Town area of Margate, the sculpture is to be welcomed by an entourage of ladies made from real shells. Local may have seen the Shell Ladies throughout the summer months leading people into the Old Town area on a highly popular treasure trail, highlighting some of the unique features and architecture of the area.
Each Shell Lady has her own name and identity, based on some famous and infamous ladies in Margate’s history. The bronze sculpture is to be Mrs. Booth, Turner’s long-suffering mistress, who will be looking longingly out to sea in the hope of sighting her lover, from her position at the end of the Harbour Arm.
The Margate Shell Ladies are funded by money from the European Regional Development Fund, which has also funded other improvements in the town, including the new CCTV cameras and footway improvements in the Old Town, the regeneration of the Harbour Arm and the new play facility, currently under construction in Cliftonville.
Claire Tarelli, Margate Renewal Partnership Project Officer, said: “Margate’s Shell Ladies have been a great success over the summer and have really helped to promote the town, with a lot of national press coverage of them. They’ve become a familiar sight in Margate and now the giant Shell Lady will be a permanent fixture along the town’s newly regenerated Harbour Arm, which has also been funded by money from Europe. She’ll be a welcoming sight for both visitors to and residents of Margate.”
The giant shell lady of Margate will be illuminated nightly, starting from Saturday 29 November, which coincides with Sir Bob Geldof’s visit to the town to turn on the Margate Christmas lights.
News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Friday, 28 November 2008
4 comments:
Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.
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Wow sounds great,will pop along tomorrow to see,and there is a market in the old town so should be great atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteLily
Think it is the only positive spin they can put on Margate at the mo!
ReplyDeleteThe shell ladies!
Well at least she can keep the lifeboatman at the other end of the prom company - he always looks so lonely having stood there looking out to sea for nearly a hundred years - now he'll have someone to wave to!
ReplyDeletecant wait to go down and see her and while I am there pop into Droit house and see whats going on plus see how the building work is shaping up
ReplyDelete