The Sandown Trove, found in 2026, paints a vivid portrait of a town that’s neither here nor there.
If a person, Sandown was once a showy, glitzy veneer. A High Street salon could advertise branches in London, Paris, and Sandown, and no one would pick up a pen to troll or deride. Maybe that well-heeled Sandown needed taking down a peg or two; certainly her offspring were content to spend hard-earned money on laughs, crazy golf, and fish and chips, altogether more down-to-earth. And then, somewhere around 1993, the tide went out for miles and miles. Sandown became unfashionable.
Today, Sandown blends astonishing beauty with deprivation and decay. Decay is the hard-to-break habit; beauty and community are the fix. We count our blessings when we swim or watch the sunlight dance on the sea, while simultaneously feeling the shame and anger of omnipotent rot, dereliction, and online ridicule. It’s a curious, itchy state, part victim, part favoured. We choose to stay.
To capture this tension, Sandown Trove drafted a talented blow-in, Anmarie Bowler, as our writer-in-residence. From sunrise to sundown, looking out through the Trouville Hotel window, she began to conjure a town where beach inflatables come alive; where a young boy rages against pollution, demanding revolution; and where a sandcastle brings a father and daughter closer.
Sandownians were also asked to share their memories, recollections, and hopes. Sugary recollections spun like floss, decorating our High Street window as a love letter to a place that can’t be pinned. This is where we met. These are my neighbours. These are different versions of me. This is where I strangely belong.
Sandown Refocused / Zoë Barker
And what of the holiday postcards? Wish you were here. Today, there is a different story. Photographer Zoë Barker captures this altered state, an ode to closure, retreating opulence, and the vanishing. Where history clings to a vinyl banner.
“I was anxious that the resulting images would only reinforce the ‘poor old Sandown’ narrative. But as I began my photographic journey, I discovered something unexpected. There always seemed to be something positive and beautiful within the frame, no matter what the subject.” Zoë Barker, fine art photographer
Yet in these cracks, new life innovates. There’s beauty and spirited tenacity. Coasting on unpalatability, the images’ authentic storytelling makes you wonder what will happen in the next chapter. The flourishing?
Radio Free Sandown / Sandown Scribe Writers Collective
In a wonderful golden thread, a Sandown-based writers’ collective formed. Tracing the sand-vanished footsteps of Lewis Carroll and tuning into the peculiar frequencies that inhabit the Bay, they summoned Radio Free Sandown. Late-night DJ Charlie Dodgson broadcasts from the end of the pier to an audience that includes relatives asking him to babysit. Possessed beach inflatables gather; mysterious road cones cause consternation as the listener is prompted to laugh with us, not at us. Radio Free Sandown is a free-to-use, add-and-modify-as-you-please, cheese-dream of a radio play. It invites you to believe in at least six impossible things. But above all, believe in Sandown.
Radio Free Sandown was created by Anmarie Bowler, Katie Stone, Tim Martin, Emma Souter and Annys Brady.
Sandown Close-Up / Simon Avery
And what of the Sandownians? The people who live and work here? What do they look like?
On the coattails of Arthur Debenham, a Royal Warrant Victorian photographer whose studio, Rembrandt House, once occupied 105 High Street, curator and photographer Simon Avery frames telling close-ups and plays with the carte de visite. Shot quickly on his phone, his black-and- white portraits present: The Baker, the Habitat Creator, The Costumier, The Motivator, The Barista, The Town Cleaner and Island Girl.
This is the cast of no ordinary town.
Sandown Trove was made possible by a grant from Arts Council England and support from Creative Island. The project encompassed a wide variety of community activities, including free creative writing workshops, local story collection, youth zine-making sessions, a writer-in-residence commission, two photography commissions, live performances, and a final exhibition at GRAFT Studios. Central to the initiative was a community co-created artwork for a High Street window display, which transformed local stories into a vibrant public artwork.
SANDOWN TROVE EXHIBITION
Sandown Trove will be on display
Where: Graft Studios, The Old Town Hall Grafton Street Sandown PO36 8JJ
When: Monday 9 – Saturday 14 November
Times: 11am – 4pm
Before going to Sandown Library and the Broadway Center.
Over the ten-month project, more than 80 residents of all ages took part in free workshops, 10 creative practitioners were engaged, and thousands of residents and visitors interacted with the stories brought to life along the High Street and through performances. A big thank you to Lindsay Robertson aka Words and Stuff and artist Teresa Grimaldi <3
TM2026
#InspiredbySandown #Sandown2028 #IrisManifesto
