Redsands seafort - beauty in decay

You'll probably think this is a bit far off topic... I can assure you it's mid- century, though, and it sure does make my heart beat faster, so I'll give it a go!

I have some weird interests. My oil rig fetish is one of them... Growing up during the oil bonanza in my home town, oil rigs under construction and large supply ships were part of the cityscape. After completion, the rigs got towed out to the oilfields in the North sea, and we watched them as they went, filled with pride.

The rig Statfjord A was towed out in 1977

I guess the fascination has a great deal of duality, it's beauty and danger (and obviously, the environmental aspect). There's no denying drilling for the black gold has had a high price. Disaster struck in 1983 as the rig Alexander Kielland capsized, an event that cost far too many lives and left a dark cloud over my home town for a long time. Pretty much everyone were in some way influenced by it. We sailed by the torn off leg that caused the disaster, and seeing the signs of those unbelievable powers that ripped the enormous leg off off is an experience I'll never forget.

Those pioneer days are over a long time ago, but I often think about those times, I notice that even my sense of aesthetics is influenced by those large, rugged steel and concrete structures. So imagine my thrill when I got the chance to visit what I'm about to show you! It took place many years ago, but yesterday, as I was moving all my photos to a new harddrive, seeing these took me right back. It's one of the most peculiar places I've ever been. I got a rare chance to visit Redsands seafort, an amazing structure in Herne bay in the Thames estuary, off the coast of Kent, with some other architecture students.We left Whitstable harbour in the morning.

The first sight of the structures was overwhelming and can best be described by the words of Stephen Turner, a local artist whose work often involves spending long periods in odd abandoned places, noting changes in the complex relationship between human-made and natural environments.

Stephen Turner was in residence alone on the derelict searchlight tower of the Shivering Sands Seafort for 36 days from 4 August until 9 September 2005. A time period corresponding to a tour of duty in the fort during WWII. The Seafort Project was an artistic exploration of isolation, investigating how one's experience of time and place changes in isolation, and what creative contemplation means in a twenty first century context.

"As a small boy I was often taken to the small seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent. The beach was mainly shingle, and not very good for building sand castles, so I frequently used to look into the sea to spy passing pirate ships or maybe killer sharks. On the horizon were a series of, what looked to me, like giant metal monsters about to invade the coast line and destroy everything in their path. These assemblies fascinated me."

Rising from the water like rusty invaders out of H.G. Wells, the Redsands Army Fort in the Thames Estuary is a decaying reminder of the darkest days of World War II. The Shivering Sands and Redsands Maunsell Sea Forts were built in 1942 at Northfleet, Kent and are six-eight nautical miles off the East Kent coast. They were created as anti-aircraft and observation platforms to disrupt overflying by the Luftwaffe on bombing runs to London.

The forts are visible from the Kent and Essex coastlines as small interruptions to the horizon. De-commissioned in the 1950's, standing derelict and disused these utilitarian and brutal concrete structures are poignant reminders of past conflict. They have enormous presence, and a sinister beauty.

After their wartime career, the forts were decommissioned in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 70s, the remaining abandoned forts were famously taken over as a pirate radio station, there were several offshore radio stations at the time, some of them on ships. A ship collided with the towers destroying one of them, but the station regrouped and installed new equipment. In 1966 one of the people claiming ownership of the station was killed in scuffle with another, and the government responded with legislation shutting down off-shore radio stations.

They've been described in the Guardian as "some of Britain's most surreal and hauntingly beautiful architectural relics". The seaforts' structural engineer, Guy Maunsell, went on to use the technology to build the first oil rigs in the North Sea. Project Redsand has been established to secure the future of the Forts and the group are working towards the listing of the Redsand Towers as a National Monument and Heritage site.

The first day we were taken out, it was too windy for the boat to go close to the structures and for us to climb those tiny rusty ladders to board them. The second day, though, we had gorgeous weather, and got to see their abandoned, ghost- like interior.

 

We had tea and biscuits, English style, up on the roof, where the large canons once were, as we watched large cargo ships glide by... What a weird and wonderful experience.

We sailed back to Whitstable in a gorgeous sunset, that made the whole experience seem surreal. I'll never forget it. There. Just had to get it out.