A mural mishap in Margate

Poor Margate’s been unwell for some time, and now this mural has happened, which is a bit like telling a terminally ill woman you’re about to give her a makeover and blapping her on the face. Margate is persistently rumoured to be on the brink of regeneration, but until the Turner Contemporary Gallery arrives and the visitors return, this publicly-funded 140ft long building wrap by artist Daniel Blat is touring some of Margate’s kerjillions of derelict retail sites. Blat’s colourful mural blares reminders of better summer seasons past, but its images of lost revenue streams seem callous. What Margate needs in its building wraps is either beauty, or better, a very funny in-joke that’ll give the old girl a good laugh. Actually, maybe that’s what this is…