Jaywick Sands in Essex, population 4,800, is a survivor of a largely lost world, the interwar phenomenon called “plotlands” that enabled the working-class dwellers of big cities to own, and often build, their own home in the countryside and by the sea. It manifests a dream of freedom and self-reliance, with a DIY pioneer spirit of tenacity and improvisation more typical of American timber houses than rural England. It also has problems. It is threatened by the rising sea, and it has been identified several times as the most deprived neighbourhood in England. A dismal photograph of Jaywick was infamously used in a Trumpian campaign ad that purported to show the terrible consequences of Democrat rule.
Sunspot, a bright and breezy overgrown shed, aims to bring jobs and optimism. It is a new landmark, but one with the ad hoc spirit of the village. Built at a cost of £4.8m for Tendring district council, partly funded by the government’s Getting Building Fund, it provides offices and workshops, plus a cafe, training rooms and a hall for markets and events. It is designed by the Colchester-based HAT Projects, whose former seaside experience includes the Hastings Contemporary art gallery and whose High House artists’ studios in Purfleet, Essex, were – like Sunspot – about making affordable workspace with limited means.
