ARTIST HIRST RAPPED OVER BUILDINGS
ANGRY traders have condemned artist Damien Hirst for ‘killing’ the quayside where his controversial statue Verity stands.
The world’s richest living artist bought up three properties on the prime seaside location but they are all empty – and described by locals as an ‘eyesore’.
Nick Waters, landlord of the Hip and Pistol pub and restaurant in Ilfracombe, Devon, said they were angry after the artist ‘abandoned’ the town.
He wants the artist to bring the shops – one of which used to be a gallery selling Hirst’s work until it shut last year – back into use or to put them up for sale so someone else can make use of them.
He said: “These shops are in the busiest part of the town, yet they’ve been shut for years.
“I don’t understand how someone so rich and so famous can just leave them there doing nothing.
“There are so many businesses who would snap them up; properties on the quay are at a premium.”
Hirst has a long-established connection with Ilfracombe.
As well as his restaurant at 11 The Quay, he also loaned Verity – the UK’s tallest statue – to the town in 2012.
He also has a workshop at Mullacott Cross just outside Ilfracombe, and a home in nearby Combe Martin.
Mr Hirst also owns the three properties next to his 11 The Quay restaurant – numbers 8, 9 and 10 The Quay.
Number 10 The Quay, formerly housed the Other Criteria art gallery and shop, which is owned by Mr Hirst.
But the gallery closed in September last year, leaving the prominent outlet vacant with whited-out windows.
The ground floor premises at numbers 8 and 9 have been empty for several years.
Mr Waters, who has run the Hip and Pistol for a year and previously ran the Ship and Pilot pub nearby, said he couldn’t understand why Mr Hirst had decided to close his gallery and shop.
He said: “Over the past few years loads of art galleries have opened in the town and are doing really well.
“I don’t know why someone with a massive statue just down the road would close a shop that was selling all of his own stuff.”
Mr Waters even went as far as describing the empty shops as an “eyesore”.
He added: “People use that word about other parts of the town, and although these buildings are wellmaintained, they make the place look bad.
“If it were four shops in the high street that were vacant, the council or someone else would be doing something about it – so why not these? The whole town is going through a real revival at the moment, it’s doing really well.
“But something needs to be done. They either need to be re-opened, let out to someone who will put them to use or sold so someone else can do something with them.”
A spokesman for Hirst’s company Science Ltd, said: “The properties are currently under renovation with a view to being leased in the future.”
A notice for a planning application has since been posted outside the properties. The application requests the change of use of the ground floor of 9 The Quay, two doors down from Hirst’s restaurant, from residential to retail.