Sandown community hopes Town of Culture will bring change

Sandown on the Isle of Wight is in the final weeks of preparing its bid to become UK Town of Culture 2028.

The seaside resort was chosen in July as one of 15 finalists from nearly 400 hopefuls across the country vying for a £3m prize to stage a showcase of cultural events, with two runners-up each receiving £250,000.

Years of neglect have seen the once thriving tourist hotspot fall into disrepair, with the derelict hotels along the town's seafront becoming a constant target of vandalism .

But locals have told me that winning the Town of Culture competition is the catalyst for change that Sandown needs.

Ed Evans is a glass maker who runs the business his father set up in Sandown 30 years ago.

"Hopefully [winning] will encourage us to do some big public works around the town... that's what we've been asked to do, and I think the town definitely needs some brightening up, there's no doubt about that," he suggests.

"I always talk about the 'Sandown Smile'… on a Summer's day when you go down and everything's happening, it looks as good as any seaside town in the country.

"But then you get a sort of nasty, wet, windy, grey day in the Wintertime and no one's about and there's the tumbleweed blowing and you're looking around at some of the broken down hotels and stuff and you get a feeling that there's a bit of dereliction going on.

"We have potential and there is a lot of good things happening here and if we receive some funding we can show what we're doing here a bit more and just gild the edges.

"A lot of people complain about the town. We want to change that, we want to get rid of the bad spots and highlight the good stuff.

"I love the town, I love the beach particularly. I'm absolutely addicted to going down in the water, and [getting UK Town of Culture] would mean that I feel confident in the future of this place.

"I've never planned to move anywhere or change the premises of the business, and I like to think that we are moving into a better era, so I think it would give us confidence to keep going."

Lyssa Truman has lived in Sandown since she was eight, was made redundant after working for 33 years at the local leisure centre, and now runs exercise classes at The Fitness Hub at the town's old post office.

"I just think there are endless possibilities," she says about the bid.

"There are so many talented people in the area that could do with a break... and I just can see loads of little pop-up cafes, pop-up businesses, little markets where everyone would be able to come together, support each other, but also thrive and grow together as well, and I think that would really attract other people visiting here.

"The derelict buildings and the old hotels, things need to change there, and to just bring that High Street back as well because it was thriving years ago.

"All the different shops were open, and now some are a little run down, and there are lots of empty shops that actually just need to be brought back to life, to give people the opportunity without financially taking hold of them before they even get started.

"There are a lot of beautiful people here and it's not had that injection of money, and I don't think it will take much to make this place absolutely thrive.

"We've got the most beautiful bay in Sandown and when you look at that, you could be anywhere in the world, you really could, but imagine all these little extra things going on too, it'll just be incredible."

Vivette Fryatt, co-owner of the cafe Viv's Cooking, says Sandown remains "special" because of the people.

"I know there's a lot of room for improvement, but guess what? There's a lot also that's going on that's good," she says.

"[With prize money] visitors would see the beauty of Sandown, because in the Summertime they flock and they stay on the beachfront and even people on the island tell them that there's nothing in Sandown and that is so not true.

"Things are happening, things are here already. An injection of cash [could mean] fixing up the seafront, revitalising the High Street, and getting these shops open, even if it's to put community projects in that are attractive to visitors."

Ian Boyd works for environmental organisation The Common Space.

"Sandown sort of almost fizzled into existence in the middle of the 19th century," he explains.

"It evolved overnight as a place for people to come and stay in this beautiful setting and that kind of Victorian idea of tourism has never left, and so the High Street and the seafront were all designed around that model.

"But everything has changed and so Sandown needs to change. A consequence of that is it's struggled and it's had hard times.

"It's perhaps the one place on the island that can genuinely change trajectory... it captures so much of the island spirit, it's a beautiful seafront environment, it's bookended by nationally important landscapes, it's set within a Unesco World Biosphere , it has all of these gifts.

"It has a strong cultural story, it has an amazing diversity of landscapes, seascapes, streetscapes, but it's young enough to change direction, to take a new route, and I think that's what Town of Culture will do for us."

The bid team is putting together a six-month programme of events culminating in the Tide Turner Festival, a major celebration of arts and science.

It would tell Sandown's story over 100 million years from the footprints of the dinosaurs, via Charles Darwin's momentous On the Origin of Species - which he began working on in the town - to the present-day manufacture of pioneering vertipools that provide artificial marine habitats for a changing planet.

The town will find out if it has made it through to the next round of the competition in November.

The overall winner will be announced next year.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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