Bexhill

Bexhill is an interesting little town on the south coast. Famous for its Art Deco De la Warr Pavilion, it also claims to be the birthplace of motor racing, with events originally held along the seafront road. It is also home to a concrete mural by Henry and Joyce Collins.

This is the fifth Henry and Joyce Collins' mural commissioned for Sainsburys that we have looked at, having previously toured those in Gloucester, Surbiton, Hitchin and Oxford.

The mural is on the wall facing Buckhurst Place, and was installed in 1976. It consists of 17 pieces in three arched bays.

The arrangement of panels is somewhat different to those we have previously seen. Clearly the elements could not be arranged into one mural, but the strange background setting makes me wonder whether it has been moved during a store refurbishment.

So let's look at the three bays in turn. The first one consists of five elements.

The central element has a nautical theme (as do many of the others across the mural). It also shows a penny which includes the inscription Pillemus Rex - King William.

We then have the standard Sainsbury's element, followed by some more fishing-based motifs.

I have no idea what this next element is all about. Are there rope coils? Is there some form of horse in the middle?

The second bay has seven individual elements.

We see again the Norman penny, but also King Offa, who granted Bexhill a charter in 772 AD.

The bottom right panel shows a ship underneath the inscription Hic Willelm Dux In Magno Navigo, which is taken from the Bayeux Tapestry where it continues Mare Transivit Et Venit Ad Pevensae - translating as here Duke William crossed the sea in a great ship and came to Pevensey. This of course references the Norman conquest, with Pevensey just along the coast from Bexhill.

And look, there's Halley's comet, which looks like its approaching William's ship in the manner of Exocet missile.

It's back to five elements for the third bay.

Is this a geographic feature or a giant musical note? And what I didn't notice at the time is that this panel has the signature of Henry and Joyce Collins under the blue waves at bottom left.

We end with a boat, which provides a link to our next port of call.

Photographs taken on 18 May 2019.

Oxford

Stop number six on our tour of the concrete murals of Henry and Joyce Collins takes us to Oxford. Although this is Templars Square shopping centre in Cowley, which is the grittier industrial part of the city rather than the dreaming spires.

Like Surbiton, the Templars Square shopping centre is somewhere I had visited before without seeing the mural. But here it is a case of several different entrances to the centre, and one that is not the most obvious to the casual visitor. The mural is the least referenced on web image searches, which maybe a reflection on its location both within the centre and its distance from the city centre.

The Templars Square shopping centre was opened in 1965 as the Cowley Centre, changing its name in 1989. It is located on Between Towns Road. The current names derives from the Knights Templar, whose Temple Cowley was founded in 1139.

The mural was commissioned for Sainsbury's and was installed in 1976/77. As per usual, it depicts the history of the area, although not quite in the same ancient to modern and all points in between as seen on many of the others. In fairness, it would have to be a very long mural to encapsulate all of Oxford's history.

The plaque sets out what can be seen. I am trying to work out if this is original or whether it is covering some original feature, as the other murals seen so far have not included a plaque on the work itself.

The plague says that the legend reads from left to right, but it doesn't quite pan out that way. It says that the elements are:

• Ancient names of Oxford and Cowley;
• Dreaming spires and towers of Oxford colleges;
• Oxford University Press;
• Agriculture represented by: Oxfordshire farm wagon, traction engine (Oxfordshire Steam Ploughing Co.), old and modern ploughs, tractors, combine harvester, beet harvester, sheep farming, poultry and cattle;
• Modern Grove Allen hydraulic crane;
• History relating to influence of William Morris on car production in Cowley;
• Modern car production;
• Early Sainsbury's van made by Leyland;
• Sainsbury's tricycle delivery;
• Oxford marmalade.

Well, clearly there are some old place names at the top left:

The big green traction engine (this sounds like the start of a children's book) was built by the Oxfordshire Steam Ploughing Company founded in 1874. The company was taken over by John Allen in 1897, which in turn was taken over by the US company Grove. Hence the "modern Grove Allen hydraulic crane", otherwise known as the big yellow machine. Production of the cranes was moved from Cowley to Sunderland in 1984, but before then the factory stood opposite the Templars Square shopping centre, on a site now occupied by the John Allen retail park.

We now have the dreaming spires and the Oxford University Press. Or in an alternative universe, the Oxford University towers and the dreaming quires.

The coats of arms are those of Oxford University and the City of Oxford (an ox fording a body of water - no point in getting too clever).

The right hand end of the mural is dominated by motor vehicles. Car production started in Cowley in 1912, and still continues today with BMW producing the latest Mini.

Yes there really was a car produced in the shape depicted below, and yes it really was made in a horrible brown colour. This was the Austin Princess, produced between 1975 and 1981.

The Mini is a much more famous car...

The "Early Sainsbury's van made by Leyland" has been amended in a rather unsubtle manner by Wilko, who are the current occupiers of the Sainsbury store site. I hope that this tacky addition is something that can easily be removed (I think I am referring to the sign rather than the store, but I could be wrong) without damaging the mural. If you look closely at the plaque you can also see that the black lettering of the name Sainsbury has been scraped off. Do Wilko really think that Sainsbury's is a competitor? Surely Sainsbury's is in a much higher league.

And the Oxford Marmalade? I think there is a jar lurking in the bottom right corner of the mural. Oxford Marmalade, as opposed to the much earlier stuff made in Dundee, was first made by Sarah Cooper in 1874. As well as Seville oranges, there are various different recipes containing items such as brown sugar, black treacle and root of ginger. I will let others argue what the "authentic" recipe is.

Next stop on our magical mural tour is Bexhill.

Photographs taken on 4 May 2019.

The Concrete Murals of H & J Collins

Welcome

Welcome to this blog. It is focussed on the works of the husband and wife team Henry and Joyce Collins, who (amongst other artistic endeavours) created a series of concrete murals in the 1960s and 1970s. If the feeling takes me, I may expand out into concrete murals produced by other artists, but then again I might not.

I do not claim to be an expert on either concrete murals or the works of H&J Collins, but I hope that this blog will inspire a few other people to become interested in these works. Murals are often under threat from the actions or inactions of philistine developers and planning authorities - those by H&J Collins are in particular peril because a lot of their work was commissioned by Sainsburys and British Home Stores. For Sainsburys, these were for town centre stores which either have been relocated or under the threat of relocation to larger out-of-town sites. The more recent trend back to town centre convenience stores may be positive in this respect. And British Home Stores no longer exists, which means their buildings are likely to be redeveloped. But as we shall see, not all is doom and gloom.

Who were Henry and Joyce Collins?

Henry Collins (1910 - 1994) and Joyce Pallot (1912 - 2004) met at the Colchester Art School, and later married in 1938. They lived and worked in Colchester for most of their lives.

They produced regular artwork and murals in a variety of medium, including for the 1952 Festival of Britain.

Their first concrete mural was produced for the local Sainsbury store in 1969.

For much more information, visit the Henry and Joyce Collins website at henryandjoycecollins.co.uk. 

Why am I interested in their work?

I grew up in Colchester, in the days when everyone went into the town centre to do their food shopping. The strange concrete picture by the entrance to Sainsburys was something I saw on a regular basis but didn't really take much notice of. A bit later those nice highway planners built a dual carriageway to the south of the town centre, which meant my childhood journey now involved going through one of four subways. These subways sprouted some smaller versions of the strange concrete pictures.

Recently the subway murals have been restored (see the Henry and Joyce Collins website for a film about the restoration work), and some information panels installed. Not only did I notice them afresh, but I now knew who they were by. Which then led to thoughts of "I wonder if there are any more of these around the country'" and then ultimately to this blog. And even to the purchasing of an old copy of Concrete Quarterly, so perhaps you need to be careful where these things can lead you.

My Aim

My aim is to visit all of the Henry and Joyce Collins concrete murals in this country, and then to post pictures of them on this blog. This ambition is slightly hampered by not having a definite list of where they are, so any information would be gratefully received.

I have included a couple of pictures in this posting from the Stockport mural - more on this one in a later posting.