Cool Places
Derek Jarman’s Garden
Prospect Cottage Dungeness Road Lydd Kent
The late film-maker Derek Jarman created a wonderfully low-key and poetic garden from driftwood sculpture and the hardiest local wild plants in front of his black clapboard cottage in the shadow of Dungeness power station. It’s been maintained by his former partner Keith Collins, who tolerates the steady trickle of garden and Jarman enthusiasts taking it all in from the road. You don’t need to intrude beyond that and there is no official visiting. The cottage is on the single track Lydd road from Dungeness and visible from the miniature railway; be sure to get the right one, as the garden has been imitated by a couple of its neighbours. It’s a ten-minute walk along the shingle beach to the railway station.
