The regeneration and slow but sure transformation of Margate has hit the headlines in New York.

The city’s New York Times magazine carried a two page feature by writer Laura Barton on Friday (October 18) about the town, Folkestone and east Kent in general, and its attraction to those eager to move away from the London sprawl while remaining close enough for business and leisure.

It highlights how the development of Turner Contemporary has helped open up the seaside town to artists, artisans and visitors.

It states: “Turner Contemporary opened on the Margate seafront in the spring of 2011. It was a controversial undertaking, a $27.7 million gamble in a town better known for its boarded-up shops than its creative community.”

Paul Breuer and Matt Dawson have worked in the vintage-clothing industry for two decades were interviewed at the old town shop.

The writer adds: “We were standing among the vintage cashmere, brogues and braces of their shop, Breuer & Dawson, in the old quarter of Margate — a knot of winding streets and pleasingly crooked buildings now populated by cupcake cafes, retro furniture stores, a pub that offers a locally sourced menu and an alluringly named tea shop, Lady Tesla’s Loose Leaves and Mud.

“ Margate went down furthest and came up quickest,” said Breuer, who has lived in Kent with his family for 10 years. “It’s kind of the last area in Britain that’s as close to London as Brighton” — a town in Sussex often referred to as London-by-the-Sea — “but a world away in terms of attitudes.”

Tuner Contemporary curator Lauren Wright, who moved to Margate from London via Denver, told Barton: “It was January when I first visited, but it was sunny that day, and having grown up in Colorado, I hadn’t realized how much I missed the space and the light. It was early days in terms of regeneration then but I’d never felt part of a place that was so transformational, where so many unexpected, wonderful things could happen.

“In London, it was like living in any other cosmopolitan city in the world,” she said. “But when I moved to Margate, found a real appreciation for the beauty of England, for place and for the specificity of architecture — but also an understanding of class and what that means here.”

BLOB: To read the full article go to www.newyorktimes.com and search for magazine, October 18.