The Concrete Murals of Henry and Joyce Collins - an overview

Detailed photographs and information on all of the concrete murals of Henry and Joyce Collins have been included in the previous posts, set out in the order which I visited them. The following is a summary of all the murals in the chronological order in which they were made.

Colchester
Installed 1969
Original location: Sainsbury's, Priory Walk
Current location: As original
Details in post of 13 April 2020

[Photograph taken 7 October 2019]

Gloucester

Installed 1970

Original location: Sainsbury's, Hare Lane

Current location: As original.

Details in post of 19 May 2019

[Photograph taken 27 March 2019]

Hitchin

Installed 1973

Original location: Sainsbury's, Brand Street

Current location: Hitchin Library (re-located 2003)

Details in post of 9 June 2019

[Photograph taken 19 April 2019]

Colchester

Installed 1974

Original location: Various subways under Southway

Current location: As original

Details in post of 11 April 2020

[Photograph taken 7 October 2019]

Newcastle

Installed 1974

Original location: BHS, Northumberland Street

Current location: As original (although shop is now Primark)

Details in post of 30 September 2019

[Photograph taken 16 September 2019]

Cwmbran

Installed 1974

Original location: Gwent House, Gwent Square

Current location: As original

Details in post of 14 August 2019

[Photograph taken 16 July 2019]

Colchester

Installed 1976

Original location; BHS, Lion Walk

Current location: Near Firstsite (re-located 2011)

Details in post of 20 October 2019

[Photograph taken 7 October 2019]

Bexhill

Installed 1976

Original location: Sainbury's, Buckhurst Place

Current location: As original

Details in post of 6 July 2019

[Photograph taken 18 May 2019]

Droitwich Spa

Installed 1976

Original loaction: Sainsbury's, St Andrew's Square shopping centre

Current location: As original (although shop now Wilkinsons)

Details in post of 3 August 2019

[Photograph taken 15 July 2019]

Worcester

Installed 1976

Original location: Sainsbury's, Windermere Drive

Current location: As original?

Details in post of 29 July 2019

[Photograph taken 14 July 2019]

Oxford

Installed 1977

Original location: Sainsbury's , Cowley Centre

Current location: As original (although shopping centre renamed as Templars Square, and shop now Wilkos)

Details in post of 13 June 2019

[Photograph taken 4 May 2019]

Southampton

Installed 1978

Original location: Sainsbury's , Lordshill

Current location: Hamtun Sreet (re-installed 2011)

Details in post of 20 July 2019

[Photograph taken 25 May 2019]

Stockport

Installed 1978

Original location: BHS, Merseyway Shopping Centre

Current location: As original (although shop now Poundland)

Details in post of 5 May 2019

[Photograph taken 15 March 2019]

Surbiton

Installed 1980

Original location: Sainsbury's, Victoria Road

Current location: As original

Details in post of 27 May 2019

[Photograph taken 6 April 2019]

Gloucester

Installed ?

Original location: BHS, Eastgate Street

Current location: As original (although BHS store now closed)

Details in post of 7 May 2019

[Photograph taken 27 March 2019]

Elmstead

Installed 1972

Original location: Elmstead School, Colchester

Current location: ?

No photographs or further details available.

Colchester - Sainsbury's

We end our national tour of the concrete murals of Henry and Joyce Collins at where it all began - the Sainsbury's store in Priory Walk.

This mural was created in 1969. Unlike the later ones it has been created in unpainted concrete and with no colourful tessellated tiles. The artwork is also a bit less sophisticated than on those to follow.

But like some of the later ones the space in front of it is used to park bikes.

And it started off the process of representing local history in the designs that make up the mural. Let's look at the mural from left to right.

We have a series of coin designs, including the wheat motif one which was repeated on the subways project. The CAMV letters stand for Camulodunon, indicated that the coin was minted in Colchester.

There is another coin with a horse motif, and the letters CUNO, indicating that this is a coin of King Cunobelin who ruled AD 10 - 40.

Camulodunum was the Roman name for Colchester.

The Princess Diana lookalike below is actually Helena, who was Empress of the Roman Empire and later became Saint Helena. The wording around the coin gives her full name of Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta. She is an important figure in Colchester as she was allegedly the daughter of King Cole (he of merry old sole fame from the nursery rhyme, although the linking of all these facts seems somewhat dubious).

More is known about Boudicca (a.k.a.Boudicea and other spellings) who was the Queen of the Iceni who revolted against the Romans and led the destruction of Colchester in AD60.

The mural is signed Henry and Joyce Collins at the bottom left of the panel depicted a ship.

Colchester became a colonia i.e. a planned town which was inhabited by military veterans rather than just being an active military establishment. The depicted building is the Temple of Claudius, on whose foundations the current Norman castle was built. The figure with the winged helmet is Mercury, god of poetry and communication.

So that completes the tour of all the concrete murals of Henry and Joyce Collins (well, all the ones I know about - if I have missed any please let me know). It was my mission to visit them all in 2019, which I achieved - it is just a taken a while to post them all.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour, and will let me know of any historical facts that I have got wrong or missed out.

The next posting will give a summary of all the mural visited.

Photographs taken on 7 October 2019.

Colchester - BHS

The Henry and Joyce Collins' concrete mural for the Colchester BHS store was commissioned in 1976. It consists of three panels, which are now located near the Firstsite art gallery.

 

The information panel by the mural notes that the artwork makes reference to "Colchester's historical weaving trade, its farming and agricultural industries, with the food provision available at BHS".

So in the left hand panel we have various illustrations of weaving and sewing...

...including products such as a natty BHS jumper.

This panel also includes the signature of Henry and Joyce Collins, and the date 1976.

The middle panel is the basket of goods, which we have seen on the other BHS murals in Gloucester and Stockport (both covered in May 2019).

The right hand panel (or the bottom one as originally arranged) covers agriculture.

The information panel notes that the mural was relocated in 2011, and includes a photo of the original location, showing the panels in their vertical arrangement.

BHS of course no longer exists, and the building is now occupied by Primark. The entrance as it is today is shown below.

We now stay in Colchester and move on to the subway murals.

Photographs taken on 7 October 2019.