Author: Rachel Seoighe

We’ve arrived. The last act of E. coli’s Margate Tour is out and it ends overlooking the Southern Water pumping station. Margate’s poo bungalow.

From this viewpoint on Princes Walk, we ask the big questions. Who is responsible for all this shit – literally and figuratively? Who is E. coli, really? And what do we do now?

This final act traces the privatisation of water in England, the billions paid to shareholders, the £90 million fine and what it didn’t change, and the citizen scientists and activists refusing to let it go. It’s a lot. And it ends with a decision that’s yours to make.

Head over to Instagram @flow.walk.drag to cast your vote 🗳️, before midnight on 6th June! A lucky random winner will win some very special Flow.Walk.Drag E. coli merchandise. 

Thank you so much for walking with us and with E. coli. We hope she leaves a lasting impression – though not in the way she usually does.

We’ve caught up with her. Act 3 of E. coli’s Margate Tour is out now – and we’ve arrived at the Walpole Tidal Pool.

She’s been there a lot recently. The conditions are perfect for her. And now she wants to talk – to push back on the toxic gossip and tell us something important: that she didn’t create these conditions. Someone else did.

Stay tuned for an unexpected phone call comes in from an old friend in Liverpool. We start to see a different side of E. coli…the side that lives in our guts doing beautiful, unglamorous work; the side that’s helped develop insulin; the side that might actually have more in common with us than we thought.

Join us at Walpole Tidal Pool and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss next week’s finale.

She’s left us a trail. Act 2 of E. coli’s Margate Tour is out now — and she has been busy.

After making a sensational appearance at the Old Cliftonville Lido, E. coli takes off along the beach towards Walpole Tidal Pool, leaving a trail of red flags in the sand behind her. We follow, reading them as we go. What do they say? Let’s just say she’s not holding back.

This act moves us along the beach from Newgate Gap to the Oval Steps, getting closer to the Walpole Tidal Pool — and closer to understanding what she actually gets up to in Margate’s water.

If you’re joining us in person, pick up the tour at the Old Cliftonville Lido and follow the coastline east.

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Every seaside town has its secrets, its scandal, its toxic gossip. Margate is overflowing with it. And Act 1 of E. coli’s Margate Tour is out now.

We begin at the Coastal Shelter on Ethelbert Crescent and start to unfold Margate’s long, complicated history with the sea: from the devastating impact of cheap international flights on the town’s seasonal economy to the DFLs, the diaspora communities, and the artists who’ve kept finding their way here.

And then…we go looking for E. coli, the town’s most notorious resident.

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She’s been the talk of the town for years. Her name turns up constantly in WhatsApp groups, in health warnings, in reasons why you probably shouldn’t have gone in the water last August. And now, she’s ready to tell her side of the story.

We’re thrilled to share the trailer for E. coli’s Margate Tour — a microcosmic deep dive into hidden water histories, following E. coli along the Margate coastline. This is the sister show to our Liverpool Cholera Audio Tour.

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