'Once you're inside, it's magic'
To many, it is an outdated blot on the landscape. But to others, the 18-storey building is an iconic fixture on the coast. Meanwhile, those inside the structure’s 142 flats cherish it.
“I love this kind of building. I do accept it’s not to everybody’s taste, but for me, it is really aesthetically pleasing. I love it – I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” resident Jess Search opines.
“It is beautiful. The architecture is so extraordinary. Once you’re inside, it’s magic. There are 140 flats, and every single one has a sea view.
“These windows open so fully that you never feel like you’re cooped up on the inside – you feel like you’re absolutely part of the outside.”
We’re sat in Jess’s flat at the top of Arlington House. Sunlight pours into the 52-year-old’s home from the windows that line her wall. The panes of glass provide her with views of theme park Dreamland to one side and of Margate’s main sands to the other.
“As soon as we looked out the windows, we said we’d take it,” she remembers. “How are you with heights?”
Jess motions for me to take another step towards one of the open windows. I take in the sickening drop below and recoil.
“You get used to it after a while,” she adds.
The film producer moved from London into the property with partner Beadie Finsie four years ago, paying £180,000 for the flat’s leasehold. They were so pleased with their acquisition that they decided to buy another four floors below, which is used as their office.
They love their lives in the block; it’s in a prime location, they no longer commute to the capital for work and they adore the residents’ community spirit.
But one issue appears to be a constant cause for concern – the lifts.
Broken lifts, WhatsApp groups and preparing for the worst
When Jess met me outside the All Saints' Avenue structure earlier that day, she guided me indoors and straight past the stairs. After pressing a button on the wall, we waited for several minutes as the structure’s only working lift made its way down to the ground floor.
As our wait lengthened, Jess squeezed her fingers in between the 56-year-old elevator’s doors, pressing her face to the crack. The only other lift on the site has been out of service since October 2019.
“I was checking to see if it was stuck on the ground floor,” she explains. “If it was, I could go up to the first floor, call it up and bring it back down. It’s about understanding its quirks.
“There are a couple of ways it can go wrong – sometimes residents can get it going themselves, otherwise we have to use the call-out service and wait a few hours.
“We’re in a situation where one lift doesn’t work at all and the other keeps breaking down. It shows what happens to a building if you don’t give it the requisite attention.”
The remaining lift needs to be repaired so often that residents have a WhatsApp group to inform each other of its condition. It was out of order for 10 days in April, and just two months prior it was unusable for almost a week.
Both incidents left many of Arlington House’s elderly and infirm residents confined to their homes, unable to go to the shops or attend medical appointments. Resigned to the fact that it could break down at any point, some have even stockpiled supplies in readiness for the next time they are trapped.
“Elderly people who can’t use the stairs know to be prepared,” Jess remarks.
'A lot of people think it should be flattened'
And the troubles don't stop there.
Two years ago, a tribunal hearing ruled residents were owed between £600 and £800 each for overpaid service charges. John Moss, who lives in a flat on the 11th floor, says he has challenged landlord Metropolitan Property Realizations at court about a dozen times over the last 18 years.
“We’ve lost a couple, but every time there’s been a reduction in the service charge. It leaves me despondent,” the 67-year-old sighs.
“I’m supposed to be retired. I should be putting my feet up, going down the pub or the beach – but I’m not. I’m in the flat up to my knees in paperwork.”
I met John outside his home shortly after leaving Jess’s flat. With our faces hidden behind our masks, we stroll through Arlington House’s tiled corridors. He pauses regularly to examine cracks and water damage dotted across the walls. All the while his bespectacled eyes disappear under a shroud of steam.
“Look,” the former Thanet District Council worker says, tapping his key against an unsightly patch. “This needs rubbing down a bit, replastering if necessary and repainting – but it's been like that since 2018.
"It's very sad that the communal areas have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent.
“I've heard people saying 'it's a bit of a slum - I wouldn't want to live there'. There's a lot of people locally, especially in Margate, who think it should be knocked down.
"I’m very sad for them because that’s absolute rubbish. It’s an iconic building and everyone who lives here is very happy."
Does Brutalist block deserve listed status?
Following its completion in the 1960s, the flats in Arlington House were only available for rent on short-term contracts. It was built on top of a platform, under which architects hoped to fill with restaurants, bars and dozens of retailers.
But reports at the time suggested just two of the shops had been snapped up after its opening. And now, all of them are vacant, with the units fronting onto All Saints' Avenue hidden behind graffitied boards.
A bid was launched to have the Arlington site listed by English Heritage in 2011. It was snubbed by the charity, which reasoned the development's significance in marking "a particularly ambitious phase in Margate’s post-war development, does not translate into historic interest on a national scale".
Despite this, seventh-floor resident Simon Pengelly, 73, maintains it is deserving of listed status.
"I believe it should be listed. I think English Heritage made a mistake because the building was unique for its time," explains the retired IT consultant, who has been living in Arlington House with wife Rita for the last 11 years.
"It brings controversy - but it's a fantastic place to live. It really is a beautiful building – it’s beautifully iconic."