Maps and Routes
Finding your way around the Artworks
Folkestone Artworks, the UK’s largest urban contemporary art exhibition, is free and accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Sited outdoors around the town and harbour, the artworks pop up in both scenic and surprising locations. The changing exhibition, currently consisting of 74 artworks by 46 artists – including Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Yoko Ono, Mark Wallinger, Cornelia Parker, Bill Woodrow, Michael Craig-Martin and Ian Hamilton Finlay – offers an experience like nowhere else in the world: great contemporary art with an invitation to explore, examine and understand the town’s geography, history and potential future.
Walk A: The Pent Valley and the Railway
Starting on Tontine Street, this walk connects the earliest (geographic) features of Folkestone’s identity, with its industrial heyday in the century after the arrival of the railways.
Walk B: The Historic Centre
This walk explores the relation between the ancient Bayle, with its 7th century priory, and the commerce and industry that grew to complement the earlier religious and fishing activity.
Walk C: Waterfront and Harbour
The beach (leisure, health) and the harbour (travel) represent two of Folkestone’s four identities (the other two being military and fishing). Of the four, only the first remains a significant contemporary asset – Folkestone is still a beautiful place to live and work.
Walk D: West End
The relation between the villas and hotels on The Leas and the beach beneath was fundamental to the development of the West End, but the financial underpinning came from the proximity of Folkestone to continental Europe. Many of these artworks reflect on the interchange between England and France, as well as the wider world.