Since the rise of cheap package holidays in the 1970s, British seaside towns have become a byword for decline. In the case of Folkestone, Kent, once a favourite of King Edward VII and Agatha Christie, the final nail in the coffin was the 1994 opening of the Chunnel and the subsequent end of the ferry services.
So the launch of Shoreline Crescent, a curvaceous, architect-designed block of 84 beachfront flats and townhouses, where prices start at £430,000, symbolises Folkestone’s remarkable renaissance, but it poses a conundrum: how do you regenerate a seaside town without alienating – and pricing out – the locals?
The rebirth of Folkestone is the brainchild of Sir Roger De Haan, a native son and former owner of Saga, who, with his brother Peter, is calculated by The Sunday Times Rich List to be worth £851 million. Since selling Saga in 2004, he and his charitable trust have spent an estimated £100 million investing in Folkestone. The trust bought almost 90 derelict properties in the old town, refurbished them and gave them to an arts charity to rent to creatives on a peppercorn rent; it helped to build Folkestone Academy school and a £7 million sports centre.
In 2004 he bought Folkestone Harbour for £11 million, with a view to opening a campus of Canterbury Christ Church University there, but when the university pulled out after the financial crisis, De Haan formed the Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company. He bought the adjacent beachfront land, the site of a demolished amusement park, and set about reinventing 50 acres.
After almost 20 years of placemaking, Folkestone is buzzing: the Harbour Arm, a half-mile-long jetty, is lined with pubs, cafés and restaurants; the Goods Yard has a big screen and street food; the disused rail viaduct and station platform are now a landscaped walkway in the style of New York’s High Line; there’s a new fountain square, a boardwalk along the pebble beach and a £17 million skate park. There is a waiting list to rent shops on the Creative Quarter’s high street, which has a Banksy on a wall.
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The opening of Shoreline Crescent, built in glazed Spanish bricks and rustproof materials by Acme architects, marks the first of six residential phases, comprising 12 blocks of flats and 1,000 homes along the half-mile stretch of beach and harbour. It will completely transform the waterfront — and not all the locals are happy.
For one thing, only 8 per cent of the scheme is earmarked for “affordable” housing, even though 22 per cent is the target in the local plan. “Opinion is divided, there are very strong feelings about it,” says Bridget Chapman, a councillor for Folkestone Harbour Ward, where Shoreline Crescent stands. “My ward is in the top 10 per cent most deprived in the UK. One-bedroom flats in the new development start at £430,000. Very few in this area can afford that. We do desperately need homes, but I find it troubling that in an area of deprivation, where children are going to bed hungry and people can’t afford to heat their homes, they’ve built a luxury development in an area where resources are already stretched.”
Chapman says GPs and dentists are oversubscribed and that locals can no longer afford the soaring rents. She is concerned the loss of 500 parking spaces on the Harbour Arm will exacerbate gridlock, and that flats may end up as empty piggy banks for investors — on my tour of the development I met a manager from a Chinese-language newspaper who thought its overseas readers would be interested.
Mark Hourahane, vice-chairman of the New Folkestone Society, worries the scale of the new buildings will spoil the feel of wide open sea and sky and the historic fishing port vibe: in a previous masterplan by Sir Terry Farrell the highest buildings on the beach were 20 metres; a 2018 amendment means two buildings will now rise to 28 metres (eight storeys). One block at the harbour will be 13 storeys.
“We don’t have a problem with development in principle, or flats on the beach, as long as you remember that the townsfolk also want to visit the beach,” Hourahane says. “[The new development] kind of acts as a psychological barrier. That height of building is quite alien to Folkestone.”
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Not everyone is against it, though. Sue Wood, 76, a retired customer service adviser, has lived in Folkestone since 1966 and witnessed its decline. “Without Roger De Haan’s investment this town would be totally dead now, with no employment of any kind. The old town used to be full of empty shops. I went there for dinner on Friday night and it was like Soho. I couldn’t believe it. People will moan, but all those restaurants are employing people. To see this town bustling now is so much better than walking around a ghost town.”
Zeren Wilson, 48, a food writer and wine consultant, moved from Essex in 2017 and bought a three-bedroom semi near Folkestone West train station (53 minutes to London St Pancras) for £280,000. Last year he opened a wine bar and shop, John Dory, in nearby Sandgate. “I think the development is a positive. Without the De Haan effect, a lot of people wouldn’t have moved down, adding their skills to the community, whether it be restaurants, artists, food or yoga. Folkestone has a real creative energy about it.”
De Haan says he welcomes feedback and that locals will have a voice when future phases go through detailed planning permission. Responding to criticism of the scale of the buildings, he cites the precedent of the Grand Burstin Hotel, a 1980s 14-storey monstrosity on the harbour: “When I purchased the harbour it was in a derelict state, with large, broken-down warehouses, a lorry car park and a large area of concrete where the demolished funfair had been. People who have moved to Folkestone in the last ten years have no memory of what it was like before, so I can see why they think it’s shocking that we’re building on this lovely wide open space. But it wasn’t like that before.”
What about the lack of affordable housing? “In the negotiations with the council the 8 per cent [affordable] housing, which is shared ownership, was felt to be an appropriate figure given all the challenges in building on the site — a great deal of work was done raising the level of the beach. But we haven’t purchased a load of inexpensive houses and knocked them down. We’re not depleting the housing stock. This was a brownfield site. Yes, the homes on the seafront are more expensive than many, but as we develop around the harbour, many homes are going to be more modestly priced, and maybe some will be build to rent. Overall I feel what we’re doing is going to be a great benefit to the local economy.”
As a philanthropist, could he not take a financial hit and set aside a block for social housing? “I have invested my efforts and charitable giving in a whole range of activities. One of them is the Creative Quarter initiative, which has provided a very significant number of affordable living spaces for people. It’s not as if it’s an area that I have avoided over the last 20 years.”
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De Haan says the loss of 500 car parking spaces will be made up for by a new underground car park and a proposed multistorey car park. As for pressure on local GPs, as part of the developer’s Section 106 payments, it will be contributing £9.363 million to the council, £1.237 million of which will go to local GP surgeries.
“I don’t know what more I can do. I’m ridiculously passionate about Folkestone. I grew up here. The success of Saga was to a great extent from the hard work of local people and I feel a great affinity for Folkestone. Twenty years ago Folkestone was a tired seaside resort and in a poor state economically. Now it’s in great shape and has reinvented itself. I think the fact that we’re building a new style of homes on the seafront, where there haven’t been homes before, will only help the economy and hopefully everybody in the community will benefit as a result. We will build a beautiful place.”
