ARTS Ashford, if you don’t know it, is a small provincial town in Kent. The old centre, destroyed by 1970s urban planning, is now bleak and lifeless, while housing estates and supermarkets have sprung up around the periphery, linked by dual carriageways and roundabouts.
It is, in short, a place that probably has more in common with many other provincial towns around the world than it does with its own capital city. That is certainly true when it comes to culture. London is just 75 minutes away by train, but light years away in terms of the variety and quality of arts on offer.
