Margate Location House - A Place to be ‘cene
Fish scales, naked rockers and headless big cats, Amy Exton gives us the run of Margate Location House
Ceramic tigers to left of me, pink Elvis bust to the right, here we are, stuck in the middle with Amy Exton.
The colourful brains behind Margate Location House.
Designed and hand painted by the former Londoner-tuned-Margate enthusiast, the house is a living, breathing set for music videos, fashion shoots, and soon, pop-up dining parties.
While the photographers and designers were off shooting our Handsome Freaks piece, Amy sat down with ‘cene’s editor to talk everything from obsessed Elvis fans and vegan milk for to how she ended up in in Thanet.
“It was kind of on a whim,” she says. “I had been down a couple of times and really liked it here.”
A set designer by trade, Amy created a background for a Marina and the Diamonds music video at Dreamland and fell in love with Margate, making up her mind that this was where her new business would be.
“I always knew it was going to be a location house, but it was a bit of a gamble and I couldn’t really afford anything in London.
“This was the first house I viewed, and it was a nice blank canvas, so I put an offer in the same day.”
Having lived in a location house in London, she knew what she wanted to create when arriving at the seaside in July 2016 before opening the house in April 2017.
“Being in Margate, you just don’t know if the big companies are going to be willing to come all the way down here. But, honestly, it has been really good.
“I came home and there were two naked men in a bath with a dead fish”
“People come done for the day and the weekend. There is definitely an attraction to Margate. I’m not sure how many other places that far outside London would necessarily attract people.”
Dressed in a leopard-print shirt and with a sparkling Elvis ring, Amy certainly has influences from the King of rock and roll in the house having studied his legacy for her dissertation at university (even heading out to Graceland to interview his nutty fans).
“They were really protective, and wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to say anything bad about him.”
But it is not so much the bling and sideburns, it’s more 70s bespoke furniture, bright clashing colours and exotic backdrops.
“Everyone that comes here sees it in a different light,” says Amy. “It’s colourful, lairy and in-your face. There are lots of different corners to shoot in, but everybody likes the toilet the best.
“I went really colourful because there aren’t many houses really like this, so it helps to get people down here.”
Having designed sets for companies like Disney, “I created a cardboard spaceship that never got used, I was fuming”, rebranding the converted hospital care facility she now calls home into a suitable locale for rock bands and clothes designers was a doddle.
Lazy Oaf streetwear have used it, music acts including Loop, Foreign Beggars, Crystal Batts and Jerry Williams have also headed to the house in recent months.
“Do what you need to do; move anything you need to”, Amy shouts as the fashion shoot heads into another room.
“We had another grungy rock band come and film a video here. I came home and there were two naked men in a bath with a dead fish,” she says.
“I usually leave the house because people do tend to take over, and it’s too stressful to watch. I just don’t want to be there.”
On the whole she is very relaxed about people traipsing cameras, lights and all sorts of other equipment around the house she has so lovingly pieced together.
“I came in the other day and the whole place was destroyed,” she adds. “But so far we haven’t had many breakages.”
On cue, there is a loud bang as a pink metal arrow slides off of the wall and takes the face off of one of the ceramic tigers – ‘cene gets in their first again.
“Sometimes people do take the piss and don’t respect the furniture and the effort that goes into creating the house.” She wasn’t referring to us.
In fact, Amy wasn’t too angry with the decapitated tiger incident as a perfect guillotine slice meant superglue would bring it back to life.
You have to have an awful lot of restraint to not worry about what people are doing in your house and, thankfully, Amy has it in bundles.
“I was peeling fish scales off of the ceiling on Tuesday. Just another day.”
Insta: @margatelocationhouse