Description

Arlington House has 18 floors and was built in 1964. It towers above All Saints Avenue and Margate’s Dreamland - and every flat has a sea view. Every time I arrive in Margate, I marvel at the structure, the coloured curtains, the open windows, the patchwork of lives lived. Eclectic, uncurated, both public and private. A living canvas of intersecting realities. In 2015, the local council, Thanet, became the first to be run by UKIP. In the referendum, 59% of Kent residents voted to leave; 63.8% in Thanet itself. It was with this in mind that I took comfort from the indignant message of “BLOCK BREXIT” spread across the window panes of the 9th floor of Arlington House tower block. Very meta. - Six months later, while shooting a job in Margate, I revisited the same view, to see if the protest was still intact. To my amazement, the conflict had materialised between neighbours. The flat above had now added "DONT" across four window panes. A consolidated argument – Britain divided.