Out on the shingled plains of Dungeness, Prospect Cottage is easily spotted: the black clapboard, the yellow paintwork, the John Donne lines written on the gable end. There is the garden, planted with sea kale and driftwood, and in the near distance, the nuclear power station, hulking and grey against the pale Kent sky. Today, as most days, there is also a smattering of visitors, hair wild and coats billowing, here to see the place where Derek Jarman spent the last years of his life.
Jarman retreated to this unlikely corner of the country from London in 1987, following the death of his father. The film director, artist and author had first seen the fisherman’s cottage when visiting Dungeness with his friend, the actor Tilda Swinton. He bought it, tore out its chintzy interior, and filled it with his own works and those of his friends – among them Maggi Hambling, Gus Van Sant, John Maybury and Richard Hamilton.
