Prospect Cottage

Dungeness, England

Derek Jarman

From 1985


Artist Derek Jarman furnished the garden at his beach house with local pebbles, flowers and wreckage


Fig.1 The Dungeness Marsh is an endless pebble plain, an inhospitable "desert" in comparison to the nearby rolling, fertile landscape of Kent. (Image: Joost Emmerik)
Fig.2 The garden has no separation and the endless pebble landscape runs from the horizon to the house. According to Jarman, the garden is part of the landscape and the landscape is part of the garden. (Image: Joost Emmerik)
Fig.3 The garden of Prospect Cottage is a place full of contradictions. Sweet and rough, beautiful and ugly, hard and soft are united. (Image: Marieke Berkers)
Fig.4 There are no plantings beds at the rear. The plants just grow between the pebbles. (Image: Marieke Berkers)

On the English south coast lies the Dungeness Marsh, an endless pebble plain, an inhospitable "desert" in comparison with the nearby, rolling and fertile landscape of Kent. Only broom, blackthorn, glasswort, viper's bugloss and maidenstears can tolerate the salty sea breeze. For the rest, two nuclear power stations, derelict fishing huts and rusting fishing boats - a fascinating, but dreary landscape.


For Derek Jarman, this area felt like the end of the world. When he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, the filmmaker and artist decided to spend his final years here, in a simple wooden house named Prospect Cottage. Like a jutter, Jarman roamed the landscape to collect wreckage, colorful pebbles and plants. With what he found, he laid out a special garden.


The garden has no separation and the endless pebble landscape runs from the horizon to the house. The garden is part of the landscape and the landscape is part of the garden, according to Jarman: "I would have made a gorse hedge here, but the charm of Dungeness is that it had no fences, to build one would go against the grain". ( i ) At the front, the garden is traditional, with plant sections in circular or rectangular shapes, delimited by upright pebbles. The boxes are filled with lavenders, santolinas, poppies and crambes. There are no sections at the rear and the plants grow between the pebbles. The maintenance of the garden was a meditative activity for Jarman. Friend an journalist Howard Sooley said: “Those days in the garden at Prospect Cottage, with time suspended or off elsewhere bothering someone else, were as rich as days can be. Digging in the shingle, scattering seeds, cutting back the santolinas, breathing in the heavy scent of the sea kale. I can't think of a better use for my senses and soul”. ( ii )


De tuin van Prospect Cottage is een plek vol tegenstrijdigheden. Lief en ruig, mooi en lelijk, hard en zacht zijn verenigd. Het is de zorg die Jarman in de tuin legde die alle delen bindt. Journalist Howard Sooley: ‘Het is een rare en fantastische plek, maar ook nederig: een klein huis, een uiterst kleine tuin, en toch liet de maker ervan ons zien hoe wild en briljant onze eigen ruimten kunnen zijn als we bereid zijn met sympathie te kijken naar het landschap om ons heen, om naast alle juweeltjes ook ruimte te maken voor het drijfhout en het onkruid in het leven.’ ( iii )





( i ) The Guardian, 2008.02.17, Howard Sooley, Derek Jarman’s hideaway.
( ii ) The Guardian, 2008.02.17, Howard Sooley, Derek Jarman’s hideaway.
( iii ) The Guardian, 2008.02.17, Howard Sooley, Derek Jarman’s hideaway.