Margate approves 'hideous globule' to honour Turner

Controversial plans to build a seafront gallery in Margate in honour of JMW Turner have been approved despite criticism that the building would resemble a "hideous globule".

Thanet District Council rejected claims that the £11.5m Turner Centre would block a sea view depicted in the artist's 1830 painting, Margate, Kent. The council hopes the gallery, which should open in 2006, will attract an extra 200,000 visitors a year to the area. It will exhibit works by contemporary artists as well as by Turner and his contemporaries.

Last year, Andrew Wilton, a leading authority on the 19th-century artist and a former keeper of British art at the Tate, called for the centre not to be built, saying it would resemble a "hideous globule" set in a "daft place".

Mr Wilton said: "Slap bang behind the old pleasure pier is a hideous globule. Don't they see that it's the one place it should not be? It's not just in the town but in the harbour, which means it will spoil the view that Turner made," he said.

But despite Mr Wilton's criticism, the council, which granted planning permission on Wednesday night, said it had received only five letters objecting to the centre.

A spokesman for the council said: "These plans would see the construction of a landmark building in a highly prominent area, which, when completed, will raise the profile of Margate both nationally and internationally."

The final design of the centre, which will be partially funded by the Arts Council, was the result of an international architecture competition organised by Kent's county council.

More than 100 entries were received and the panel of judges selected an entry from the Norwegian and British architects Snohetta and Spence in October 2001.

Described by one critic as resembling an "upturned pebble" the centre will be a massive curving shell of green oak, which will tower over the town's listed stone pier. Construction will begin this year.

Margate became England's first seaside resort in the 1730s. Turner, who first visited the town aged 11, returned regularly from the 1830s and spent the last years of his life there.