1. The Olympic torch relay mural.
Guest post by Philip Grant, in a personal capacity.
If you
have been a regular reader of “Wembley Matters” over the past year, you will
know that these tile murals, celebrating Wembley Park’s sports and
entertainment heritage, are a subject close to my heart. I have recently been
putting together a detailed document about them, for the “local history
articles” collection at Brent Archives, and this is now available for anyone to
access online. If you are interested, you can find it here.
After a brief introduction about the
origin of the tile murals, the article goes on to provide information and
photographs of nearly all of the mural scenes included in this important public
artwork. There are just a few, on the west wall of the subway, which I have not
been able to find any good photographs of.
The illustrations show many scenes,
like the one above, which you are not able to see at the moment. They also
include the photograph below, of one of the original scenes, most of which has
sadly been “lost”.
2. The full Stadium Pop Concerts mural scene, before 2006.
My article then gives details of how
the murals have been covered up since 2013, apart from one put back on public
display in 2019, and three displayed for a short time at the beginning of this
year.
It concludes with some encouraging
words from Brent Council and Quintain at the temporary "reveal" of
three mural scenes in January, which are evidence that they now acknowledge the
importance of the tile murals. That gives some grounds for hope that their
previous disregard for this heritage asset may be a thing of the past. At least
they cannot pretend, when decisions about the Bobby Moore Bridge have to be
made in future, that they did not realise the murals were there!
To bring us up to date below are scenes at Wembley in support of the NHS during the Coronavirus crisis.
Philip Grant
3. Bobby Moore Bridge Says 'Thank you NHS' (Credit: Wembley Park)
4. Bobby Moore Bridge supporting 'London Together' (Credit: Amanda Rose)
I would like to thank Julian Tollast, of Quintain, for sending me photos 3 & 4 above.
ReplyDeleteI am sure he won't mind me sharing these images of the Bobby Moore Bridge, being used to thank the NHS staff who are working tirelessly during this Covid-19 emergency. I have not seen these views myself, as I have been following strict "stay at home" guidelines for the past three weeks.