Peter Cushing exhibition running in Whitstable

Peter Cushing - The Legacy

A new exhibition celebrating the life of actor Peter Cushing, who lived in the seaside town for 35 years, is now open at Whitstable Museum and Gallery.

Peter Cushing – The Legacy will run until September 2025 and features some never-before-seen items, including a head and shoulders sculpture of Cushing as his Star Wars character Grand Moff Tarkin.

Cushing’s six-decade career included an appearance in the first Star Wars film, more than 20 Hammer Horror films and two popular Doctor Who films during the 1960s.

The display also includes film material, his cartoons and drawings, plus his famous slippers worn on the Star Wars set – and the bicycle he often used to ride around Whitstable, a full-size replica movie Dalek, and a life-size cast of his face used for prosthetic special effects for his part in Top Secret.

A bust of Peter, as his Star Wars character, Grand Moff Tarkin, created by Brad James of Brush Work Studios, is also on display, now a permanent feature of the Museum.

Peter Cushing - The Legacy. Image: Whitstable Museum
Peter's slippers, worn while playing Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: A New Hope. His costume boots were too small, so Cushing persuaded George Lucas to let him wear his slippers for comfort. Lucas shot most of Tarkin's scenes from waist height as a result. Carrie Fisher said that Cushing's strange choice of footwear was one of the reasons why she found it difficult to keep a straight face. Image: Whitstable Museum
Peter’s slippers, worn while playing Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: A New Hope. His costume boots were too small, so Cushing persuaded George Lucas to let him wear his slippers for comfort. Lucas shot most of Tarkin’s scenes from waist height as a result. Carrie Fisher said that Cushing’s strange choice of footwear was one of the reasons why she found it difficult to keep a straight face. Image: Whitstable Museum

“Throughout the exhibition we have tried to show Peter’s sense of humour,” a museum spokesperson told the BBC last month. “His comments can be very witty.”

Peter and Helen Cushing purchased a cottage by the sea in 1959. They called Whitstable “The Village”, and recuperated there, from their frenetic lives on stage and in film and television. Residents tell many complimentary stories about them.

“Such a gentleman,” local Karen Isaac commented on Facebook. “He used to sit in the Tearooms and have the same table, reading the newspaper and smoking with white cotton glove(s) on.” This is around the early 1980’s or before. In fact was in the Tearooms the other day and couldn’t get myself to sit at ‘his’ table after all these years.”

Many celebrities visited Peter Cushing while he lived in the area, including Gordon Jackson, Ian Richardson, Sir John Mills, Timothy West, Rona Anderson, Ernie Wise, Paul Eddington and Alan Titchmarsh. Peter Cushing walked or cycled almost daily; he had several favourite walks in and around the town. Among them was the walk from his home in Island Wall across the golf course, either into Alexandra Road or to the benches behind Joy Lane. He also enjoyed walking along by the sea wall and the beach to the Sportsman pub, and beyond.

The actor still has many fans. Last year, for example, writer Stephen Walsh and artist Keith Page completed a graphic novel, Sing Cuckoo, centring on an imagined road trip by Peter and fellow actor Christopher Lee, searching for the lost uncut reels of The Wicker Man, partly set in Whitstable. (They are seeking a publisher).

A panel from the unpublished graphic novel by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page, "Sing Cuckoo", centres on an imagined road trip by Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
A panel from the unpublished graphic novel by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page, “Sing Cuckoo”, centres on an imagined road trip by Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee

Whitstable Museum and Gallery, family friendly museum with plenty of hands-on activities for children, is a community run museum dedicated to capturing the town and district’s rich history. Its volunteers are on hand to show you the “Wonders of Whitstable”, in particular the Invicta steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson to run on the World’s first steam locomotive passenger railway from Whitstable to Canterbury. You will also see how underwater salvage and treasure hunting was a Whitstable first too with the invention of the diving helmet by local people.

And of course, Whitstable is famous all over the world for its native Oysters so there is lots to discover about the origins of the fishing industry and associated boat building and much more besides.

Whitstable Museum and Gallery is supported by Canterbury City Council.

• Peter Cushing – The Legacy Exhibition runs until September 2025, Whitstable Museum and Gallery, Forester’s Hall, Oxford Street, Whitstable, CT5 2DS | Web: whitstablemuseum.org
Drop into the museum during the school holidays between 10.30am and 4.30pm Wednesday to Saturday

Web Links

The Peter Cushing Association

Peter Cushing – Gentleman of Horror

The BFI: Peter Cushing: 10 essential films

The Dulwich Society: Peter Cushing Profile




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