I wish there were more like this all over the country
This reminds me of the days when the wealthy would show off their wealth and create their legacies by building schools, libraries, and hospitals. And they did it while paying much higher taxes too.
I’d like to see a return to that mentality.
Catering for skateboarding is so underdone in this country. One of the reasons I quit many years ago was just that. Seeing all developments, parks, events, videos, brands etc come out of America, it was just pretty demotivating to not be able to partake in the culture that really spoke to me.
It’s a little better here now with some independent brands popping up, and projects like this, but development overall is still really low. You almost always have to rely on private efforts to supply the goods.
I grew up in Folkestone and I cannot express the significance of what Roger de Haan has done for the place. It’s genuinely a bit annoying how much better it has gotten – when I was a teenager in the 00s its main feature was seaside amusement parks burning down for insurance purposes, but whenever I got back to visit I’m astounded at how much life is back in it. It’s???? Trendy now?????? It has art festivals!!!!! The combination of the high speed train to London and Roger de Haan’s investment has completely changed the town for the better.
It’s also worth noting that Saga, the company that he owned, has a huge campus with beautiful gardens (that the public and employees can use), an enormous glass roof pavilion that serves as the canteen, and a lot of provision for the employees. I worked there as a temp and spent the whole time being shocked at how nice everything was. Four years of Sainsburys had conditioned me to windowless canteens, ha.
Anyhow, I’m obsessed with rollerskating and a bunch of my friends and I were planning to travel down and visit F51, but then I got covid. They went without me and ate fresh seafood by the harbour. Fuming. They had a lovely time though
Amazing project.
I’ve toured quite a bit in Europe with bands over the years and you come across these large Squat venues in some cities which are called Squats but they’re actually big arts centres with not only fully spec’d venues but also hostel type accommodation, art galleries and cheap workshops used by creative startup companies for things like music, film making, editing, the arts, fashion etc. Amazing places, really positive energy from the people there.
Doesn’t take much to set these up either, just a few empty factory units, a little investment, recognition of the importance of the arts in our society and the admission that not everything is about money.
The UK could do with a lot more ventures like that to be honest.
This is what city and town centres need. We are seeing department stores close down and it would be brilliant if more were being repurposed into multi-storey culture centres instead of more shops that are doomed to fail.
If only more millionaires and billionaires were actually carrying out philanthropic projects instead of masking tax avoidance as a charitable trust.
What a fantastic project.
That’s pretty sick. There’s a few small skateparks near me, one I used to visit as a kid. It’s just a shame they’re not really useable half the year being soaked through.
8 comments
What an amazing project.
I wish there were more like this all over the country
This reminds me of the days when the wealthy would show off their wealth and create their legacies by building schools, libraries, and hospitals. And they did it while paying much higher taxes too.
I’d like to see a return to that mentality.
Catering for skateboarding is so underdone in this country. One of the reasons I quit many years ago was just that. Seeing all developments, parks, events, videos, brands etc come out of America, it was just pretty demotivating to not be able to partake in the culture that really spoke to me.
It’s a little better here now with some independent brands popping up, and projects like this, but development overall is still really low. You almost always have to rely on private efforts to supply the goods.
I grew up in Folkestone and I cannot express the significance of what Roger de Haan has done for the place. It’s genuinely a bit annoying how much better it has gotten – when I was a teenager in the 00s its main feature was seaside amusement parks burning down for insurance purposes, but whenever I got back to visit I’m astounded at how much life is back in it. It’s???? Trendy now?????? It has art festivals!!!!! The combination of the high speed train to London and Roger de Haan’s investment has completely changed the town for the better.
It’s also worth noting that Saga, the company that he owned, has a huge campus with beautiful gardens (that the public and employees can use), an enormous glass roof pavilion that serves as the canteen, and a lot of provision for the employees. I worked there as a temp and spent the whole time being shocked at how nice everything was. Four years of Sainsburys had conditioned me to windowless canteens, ha.
Anyhow, I’m obsessed with rollerskating and a bunch of my friends and I were planning to travel down and visit F51, but then I got covid. They went without me and ate fresh seafood by the harbour. Fuming. They had a lovely time though
Amazing project.
I’ve toured quite a bit in Europe with bands over the years and you come across these large Squat venues in some cities which are called Squats but they’re actually big arts centres with not only fully spec’d venues but also hostel type accommodation, art galleries and cheap workshops used by creative startup companies for things like music, film making, editing, the arts, fashion etc. Amazing places, really positive energy from the people there.
Doesn’t take much to set these up either, just a few empty factory units, a little investment, recognition of the importance of the arts in our society and the admission that not everything is about money.
The UK could do with a lot more ventures like that to be honest.
This is what city and town centres need. We are seeing department stores close down and it would be brilliant if more were being repurposed into multi-storey culture centres instead of more shops that are doomed to fail.
If only more millionaires and billionaires were actually carrying out philanthropic projects instead of masking tax avoidance as a charitable trust.
What a fantastic project.
That’s pretty sick. There’s a few small skateparks near me, one I used to visit as a kid. It’s just a shame they’re not really useable half the year being soaked through.