UEFA Women’s Euros football tournament is coming to Wembley in July - OFFSIDE and more Women’s Football events from Brent Culture Service

 Many thanks to Philip Grant for this guest post

 

 

This July, the UEFA Women’s Euros football tournament is coming to Wembley, and Brent Culture Service is celebrating this with a number of special events. The season kicks off with a performance of the acclaimed drama “OFFSIDE”, at Willesden Green Library on Friday 17 June at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5 to £7, and can be booked here.

 

It’s a story about the struggle for women’s right to play football, and the challenges still faced by female players today. Futures Theatre, who are touring the play around the country ahead of the Euros, give this information about it:

 

‘It is 1892. It is 1921. It is 2017. Four women from across the centuries live, breathe, and play football.

 

Whilst each of them face very different obstacles, the possibility that the beautiful game will change their futures – and the world – is tantalisingly close.

 

Offside is told through lyrical dialogue, poetry, and punchy prose, placing the audience on the touchline of the game of a lifetime.’

 

Scene from “Offside”, being performed in Edinburgh. (Photo by Lidia Crissafulli)

 

If you want to see this “one night only” performance in Brent, I’d suggest that you book your tickets now! But there are plenty of other events celebrating women’s football, for all the family and most of them free, taking place over the next two months.

 

The Women’s Euros tournament begins on 6 July, with England playing their opening group match at Old Trafford in Manchester. Just over 50 years ago, that would not have been possible. The Football Association (“FA”) was run for men, by men who believed that football was not a suitable game for “the fair sex”. For decades it had banned all of its member clubs from allowing women to play football on their pitches!

 

Things began to change when 44 women’s teams from across the UK met in 1969 to set up the Women’s Football Association of Great Britain (“WFA”). By the 1970/71 season they held their first Cup competition, the Mitre Challenge Trophy. This has gone on to be the Women’s FA Cup, and Brent is celebrating with a free coffee morning talk, at Kilburn Library, on Wednesday 6 July from 11am-12noon: “A History of the Women’s FA Cup Final – 50 Years, Gone in a Flash.” (Please see details and register your interest on Eventbrite).

 

The England Women’s football team, 1972.

 

Brent could not have found a better speaker, to guide her audience through the development of the women’s game since the 1960s, than Patricia Gregory. She was Secretary of the WFA from 1972 to 1982, and saw an official England Women’s team play a first international match against Scotland in 1972 (a full century after the first men’s international between the two old rivals). The WFA carried on until 1993, when control of women’s football in England passed to the FA.

 

Wednesday 6 July also sees the start of a Brent Museum and Archives programme of talks at Wembley Stadium, which carries on until Saturday 30 July. “One two, one two” will give Brent residents the chance to hear inspirational stories about women’s football history from some of our local football heroes. Look out for more details online, or at Brent Libraries!

 

You can also see portraits of Brent’s Female Football Stars, specially commissioned from local photographer Roy Mehta, in an exhibition at Brent Civic Centre, which runs from 18 June until 6 November. The “Women of the Match” exhibition, prepared by Brent Museum and Archives, will also include vintage photographs and football memorabilia.

 

Manisha Taylor, QPR football coach. (Photo by Roy Mehta)

 

One of the football stars featured in the exhibition is Manisha Tailor MBE. She is a coach for the Academy players at Queens Park Rangers F.C., and the first South Asian woman to hold a coaching role at a men’s Football League club. One of the women who inspired her was Rachel Yankey (who I wrote about in my “Football IS Coming Home” article last summer). After having to pretend to be a boy, so she could play for a football team, while at Malorees Primary School in the 1980s, she had a long and distinguished career as a player, then went on to earn her coaching badges.

 

Rachel Yankey, in a football coaching role. (Image from the internet)

 

Wembley High Road will see events to help all the family to get into the UEFA Women’s Euros spirit, during the tournament. “Bend it Like Beckham, Be A Lioness!!” will take place on the wide section of pavement near Nando’s on a number of afternoons from 1-5pm. The fun activities will include the chance to take a penalty kick in a football shoot-out with a controlled AI simulator, watch exclusive female football freestylers and take selfies with a lioness mascot!

 

Although the 1923 FA Cup final was first played at the Stadium in 1923, Wembley hasn’t always been the home of women’s football. The “Lionesses” didn’t play their first international match here until November 2014, and the first Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley was in 2015. That attracted a crowd of around 30,000, which had risen to nearly 50,000 for the May 2022 final. It will be a “full house” at Wembley Stadium for the UEFA Women’s Euros final on 31 July, and in the build up to that Brent Culture Service is staging two big events. 

 

“A Stadium Of The Future -  If I can't dance , I don't want to be part of your revolution”, on Friday 29 July, from 2-8pm at Bridge Park Leisure Centre, promises a unique event for women combining music, dancing, activism, food and celebration. The group “Idle Women” will be collaborating with women in Brent, and say: ‘It’s about women taking up space and making visible their essential role in solving the social and environmental challenges with face locally and globally.’

 

On the eve of the final itself, Saturday 30 July from noon until 5pm, everyone is invited to Olympic Way for “Emma Smith's Supercompensation Cycle installation and dance performance”, along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and local musicians performing the 'Brent Anthem'. This will celebrate the arrival of the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euros at Wembley.

 

England Women’s manager Sarina Wiegman congratulating some of her players after an Arnold Clark Trophy match earlier this year. (Image from the internet)

 

The excitement will be even greater if England are one of the teams taking part in the final. England Manager Sarina Wiegman (who won the previous Women’s Euros tournament with The Netherlands) has got an excellent squad, which has been playing well and won the Arnold Clark Trophy international tournament earlier this year. Can the “Lionesses” go one better than the England Men’s “Three Lions” team at Wembley last year? 

 

We will see! And as well as following the UEFA Women’s Euros championship, I hope that you can enjoy some of the Brent Culture Service events being held along the way to 31 July.

 

Philip Grant.

 

Joint Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday to consider the Casey Review into disturbances at UEFA 2020 Final in Wembley

 

The Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee (Chair Cllr Ketan Sheth) and Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee (Chair Cllr Roxanne Mashari) will meet in the Conference Hall at Brent Civic Centre on Wednesday 9th March at 6pm to consider a shared item on the Casey Review. The latter Committee will move on to consider other items on their agenda.

The Casey Review investigated the issues around the disturbances at Wembley Stadium at the Euro 2020 Final and made a series of recommendations. 

Recommendations pertaining to street drinking and licensed premises were implemented last weekend for the Carabao Cup Final. LINK

After the event Brent Coucill hailed the action as a success:

The drink-free zone around Wembley Stadium created a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere for those attending the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday (Feb 27).

Working with the police and The FA, the council used its powers under the existing borough-wide Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) to crack down on street drinking ahead of the final, between Liverpool and Chelsea, in a bid to limit anti-social behaviour.

3,000 bottles or cans of alcohol were confiscated from the small minority of rule breakers on Olympic Way and the surrounding streets.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, said: “Yesterday we saw 90,000 football fans from across the country come to Wembley for the first full-capacity event held at the Stadium since the start of the pandemic.

“When we welcome fans, as we have done for decades, we feel like we’re welcoming them into our home so residents really want visitors to treat the local area with respect. It was wonderful to see the vast majority of fans do just that and I would like to thank everyone who followed the rules by not drinking on the street. Not only did this mean local pubs, bars, fan zones and restaurants were all buzzing with excitement, it also reduced the amount of litter on the streets and created a more enjoyable family-friendly experience all-around.

“I also want to thank the council’s enforcement officers, the police, Wembley Park and The FA. By working together and having a visible presence in the area, these keyworkers made a real difference in cracking down quickly on the small minority of fans who chose not to follow the rules.

“Finally, thanks also go to the local off licenses and retailers who stopped selling alcohol to fans before the game. This new approach will be rolled out for all future matches in Wembley as we look forward to welcoming more fans back to the historic Stadium over the coming months.”

The item on the Agenda states:

Baroness Casey review of events surrounding the UEFA Euro 2020 Final 'Euro Sunday' at Wembley

To discuss the Baroness Casey review of events surrounding the UEFA

Euro 2020 Final ‘Euro Sunday’ at Wembley, alongside the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

There is no accompanying report tabled at present.

Football IS coming home!

Guest post by Philip Grant

 

On Sunday (11 July 2021) England will be playing Italy in the final of the Euros football tournament at Wembley Stadium. There is nowhere else in our country more appropriate for this historic match, but why is that?

 

1. Wembley Stadium and its new steps, April 2021. (Photo by Philip Grant)

 

One hundred years ago, when the British Empire Exhibition was being planned, the then Prince of Wales, who was President of its organising committee, wanted it to include ‘a great national sports ground’. His wish was granted, and the giant reinforced concrete Empire Stadium, with its iconic twin towers, was built in just 300 days. It hosted the FA Cup final in April 1923, and a year later its first England international football match, against Scotland (a 1-1 draw).

 

2. The Empire Stadium at Wembley in 1924. (Image from the Wembley History Society Colln. at Brent Archives)

 

The long-term future of the stadium was in doubt, until it was saved from demolition in 1927 by Arthur Elvin. He ensured that annual events, like the FA Cup and Rugby League Challenge Cup finals were popular days out for spectators, as well as making the stadium pay its way with regular greyhound and speedway racing meetings. Although cup finals made the stadium famous in this country, the 1948 Olympic Games put Wembley on the world map. The Olympic football final at Wembley saw Sweden beating Yugoslavia 3-1, with Denmark taking the bronze medal after a 5-3 victory over Great Britain.

 

3. An aerial view of Wembley Stadium during the 1937 FA Cup final. (From a 1948 Wembley book)

 

It was 1951 before the stadium hosted a normal football international match against a country other than one of the home nations (Argentina). Then 1963 saw the European Cup final played at Wembley for the first time (AC Milan 2 – Benfica 1). The stadium was a key part of England’s staging of the 1966 World Cup, including the final, where England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time, to win their only major international tournament (so far).

 

4. England's 1966 World Cup winning team. (Image from a book, shared by a Wembley History Soc. member)

 

When Olympic Way was being pedestrianised in 1993, one of the tile mural scenes in the new subway from Wembley Park Station, celebrating Wembley’s sports and entertainment heritage, was of England footballers at the twin towers stadium. The new structure was named the Bobby Moore Bridge, after England’s 1966 winning captain who had recently died from cancer, and a plaque in his honour, at the centre of the mural, was unveiled by his widow. It should have been unthinkable for this mural to be hidden behind adverts during the 2021 Euros matches. Luckily, that threat was prevented by a campaign which lasted from February to June!

 

5. England supporters by the footballers tile mural, 7 July 2021. (Photo by Irina Porter)

 

You will see that one of the two footballers portrayed is black. The artist is thought to have based this player on John Barnes, who played for England 79 times between 1983 and 1995. His family moved here from Jamaica when he was 12, and his talent was spotted by Watford when he was playing for Sudbury Court, in the Middlesex League, aged 17. All of England’s 1966 team were white players, and John Barnes was only the seventh black footballer to represent England in modern times.

 

It was not until 1978 that Viv Anderson became England’s first modern black player. That same year saw West Bromwich Albion field three black players, something which was so unusual for a top-flight club that they were nicknamed “The Three Degrees”, after a popular female singing trio. Such was the racial prejudice at the time that they suffered terrible abuse from fans of other teams, and from other players. Worse still, this was considered “normal”, and they just had to get on with it, and show that they were not intimidated, by playing even better!

 

6. Cyrille Regis (left) showing off his England shirt, and Luther Blissett. (Images from the internet)

 

One of the West Brom trio, who answered the abuse by scoring lots of goals, was Cyrille Regis. This former pupil of Harlesden’s Cardinal Hinsley High School (now Newman Catholic College) played for England five times between 1982 and 1987, and was the country’s third black footballer. The fifth was also a product of the Brent Schools football system, Luther Blissett, who went to Willesden High School (now Capital City Academy). During his long career with Watford, he played fourteen games for England between 1982 and 1984. Brent’s diverse community, which also saw black Council Leaders by the 1980s, was helping to show the way!

 

Prejudice in football, and generally, was not just a racial problem. In the 1980s, Rachel Yankey was a girl at Malorees Primary School who wanted to play football. As an 8-year old, she shaved her hair, called herself Ray (her initials) and joined a boy’s football team. She was so good that it was two years before they found out she wasn’t a boy! At 16, she signed for Arsenal Ladies, and between 1997 and 2013 she played 129 matches for England (a record at the time for men or women).

 

7. Rachey Yankey, playing for England (left), and for Team GB at the Olympics. (Images from the internet)

 

None of Rachel’s England internationals was played at Wembley Stadium, as it was not until November 2014 that it became a venue for “the Lionesses” home games. However, she did grace the Wembley pitch in one of her five games for Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games, when they beat Brazil 1-0 in front of a crowd of 70,584. 

 

The Bobby Moore Bridge subway, with its heritage tile murals, was created as part of preparations for the Euro 1996 football tournament.  A local player who took part in that was Stuart Pearce from Kingsbury (Fryent Primary and Claremont High Schools). After leaving school at 16, to train as an electrician, he played non-League football for Wealdstone before transfers to Coventry City, then Nottingham Forest. A ferocious left-back, he won 78 England caps (nine of these as captain) between 1987 and 1999.

 

8. Stuart Pearce screaming with joy after scoring his 1996 quarter-final penalty. (Image from the internet)

 

One of the biggest disappointments of his career was when he missed a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out against West Germany at the World Cup in 1990. You can see the emotion on his face after he scored a penalty in the quarter-final shoot-out against Spain at Euro 1996, a feat he repeated at Wembley in the semi-final against Germany. Unfortunately, it was his team-mate, Gareth Southgate, whose penalty miss saw England fail to reach the final.

 

The original 1923 stadium was looking very old in 1996, and it was decided that a new national stadium was needed. Despite strong bids for it to be built away from London, the fact that Wembley was felt to be the home of English football swung the decision our way. The old “twin towers” were finally demolished early in 2003, although we still have a small relic of it. The concrete base of a flag pole, from the top of one of the towers, was donated to the borough by Wembley National Stadium Ltd, and can be seen in Brent River Park.

 

9. The flag pole base from a Wembley twin tower in Brent River Park, St Raphael’s. (Photo by Philip Grant)

 

The new Wembley Stadium opened in 2007, with that year’s FA Cup final as one of its first games. Soon afterwards there was a road sign in Honeypot Lane (I wish I’d taken a photo of it) with an image of the stadium arch, welcoming drivers to “Brent – the home of Wembley”. I do have a photo showing the stadium in May 2011, ready for the UEFA Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United. (Whatever happened to Brent’s planning policy to protect views of the stadium, such as this one from Bridge Road!)

 

10. The new Wembley Stadium, with its arch, seen along Olympic Way in May 2011. (Photo by Philip Grant)

 

“Football’s coming home” was England’s theme song for Euro 1996, and 25 years later it is being sung again. Wembley is staging some of the main matches in the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, and England, with Gareth Southgate as manager, have at last reached the final of a major tournament (for the first time since 1966)! This time, the England squad (and many of the other teams taking part) is much more representative of the country’s diverse population. 

 

Once again, there is a “boy from Brent” playing an important part in the team’s success. Raheem Sterling went to Oakington Manor Primary and Copland Community (now Ark Elvin Academy) schools, and could see the arch of the new stadium from his Neasden home. He played his first England senior game just before his 18^th birthday in 2012, and has been a regular team member since 2014, earning 67 caps so far. He has already scored 3 goals in the current Euros tournament, and helped with some of England captain Harry Kane’s 4 goals.

 

11. Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling embracing, after one of their goals. (Image from the internet)

 

Their togetherness, and that of the England squad as a whole, is a testament to the character of their manager, Gareth Southgate. Mutual respect, fairness and equality is something that he shows by example. Whereas in the past players might have been punished or excluded for expressing their views, such as Raheem on racism or his team-mate Marcus Rashford on food poverty, Southgate has supported them. Trust in their manager is part of the reason for England’s success.

 

A change in attitude towards racial prejudice has come about in English football since the 1980s. There are still some idiots who think it’s acceptable to boo players taking the knee, abuse them on social media, or to sing anti-semitic chants, while claiming to be England supporters. Thankfully they are now a tiny minority. 

 

12. UEFA's Equal Game logo for the Euros. (Image from the internet)

 

More recently this change has been reflected in UEFA. Their Respect and EqualGame campaigns are promoting inclusion in football, whatever anyone’s race, religion, sexuality, or ability. It is all about the benefits of diversity, something that Brent can show them through our everyday lives and experience. Football has come home, to the right place!

Philip Grant, 9 July 2021.

Footnote on Covid-19: I did not refer to the pandemic in my article, so that it did not distract from my main themes. I realise that fans want to be at Euros matches, and that the atmosphere they create is part of a big occasion. But with Delta variant cases rising rapidly, I think it is reckless for the authorities to allow 60,000 (or more?) spectators into Wembley Stadium. The final will go ahead, with a big crowd, but I suspect that it will prove to have been a mistake. Even if it does not cause more hospitalisations and deaths, it will mean additional cases, and more people suffering from long Covid.

 

 

'Heritage murals' at Bobby Moore Bridge, Olympic Way partially uncovered for just 3 weeks

 

 

Just two weeks ago Philip Grant wrote about the 'dodgy deal' behind the covering over of the famous sporting and musical tile murals at Bobby Moore Bridge at the Olympic Way pedestrian route to Wembley Stadium,

Now Brent Council has published a press release advertising that the mural will be partially uncovered for just three weeks. It is good that Brent Council is now recognising that these are 'heritage' but that makes their covering up  action even more inexplicable.

The Press Release:

More heritage murals on display at Wembley Park’s Bobby Moore Bridge during March

Extra areas of the heritage tile murals outside Wembley Park station will be revealed from the 10th to 28th March, as part of an annual display.

The colourful ceramic tiles, which show scenes from famous sports and entertainment events at Wembley Stadium and the SSE Arena, Wembley, date back to 1993 when they were originally dedicated to the legendary England football captain and 1966 World Cup Winner Bobby Moore.

Mayor of Brent, Cllr Ernest Ezeajughi, said: "I'm delighted that residents living close to Wembley Park and our amazing keyworkers who are still travelling into work will be able to enjoy these wonderful murals during the month of March. We may not be London's Borough of Culture this year, but we remain the borough of cultures, including the major events we host in Wembley. It's great to showcase that and pay tribute to some of the icons of our recent past especially as we start to look forward to the Euro football finals coming to the stadium this summer."

Please maintain social distancing and consider wearing a face mask whilst viewing the tiled murals.

The first scene outside the subway shows American Football players.  Many people think that the sport at Wembley Stadium started with the first NFL game there in 1983, with matches played annually at the new stadium since 2007. However, its history goes back a further 40 years, to the Second World War when two U.S. Forces teams played.

The middle scene shows a tackle involving two rugby league players. The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final was first played at the Stadium in 1929. It proved very popular, as a great day out for supporters. The final was played annually at Wembley (apart from during the Second World War) until the old stadium closed in 2000, and it has been a fixture at the new stadium since 2007.

The Empire Pool (now Arena) was built in 1934, as a year-round venue, for swimming in the summer and ice hockey and public skating in winter. It got its name because the first event held there was the swimming competition for the 1934 British Empire Games. From the autumn of that year, it was home to two ice hockey teams, the "Wembley Lions" (who played there until 1968 and were national champions four times) and the "Wembley Monarchs".

The Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals – what do you think?

Guest post from Philip Grant

Last month, I wrote about a presentation to Wembley History Society on Quintain’s proposals for the future of the tile murals in the Bobby Moore Bridge subway. LINK  I am writing this follow-up article so that “Wembley Matters” readers are aware of what is being proposed, and the suggested options.

Wembley History Society’s committee was due to decide on its response, to Quintain and Brent Council, about the proposals last Friday evening. Any views which I express here are my own, and not those of the Society. But I would like to know what you think, so please add your views as comments below. If you wish to comment anonymously, please at least give a brief description of yourself (for example: local resident, councillor, Quintain or Brent employee). (Editor's note: If you find using the comment facility difficult you can email me with your comment at martinrfrancis@virginmedia.com and I will post it for you.)

Last April, the history society wrote to Brent Council and Quintain, asking that the tile murals, which have been covered up with vinyl sheet adverts for the past five years, should be put back on public display LINK . At the presentation on 19^th October, we were shown a “collaged” photograph of the tile murals along the east wall of the subway:

Quintain’s proposals for improvements to the subway (some of it funded out of the £17.8m Community Infrastructure Levy money which Brent’s Cabinet agreed to give them last year?) include better lighting in the subway. Some of this would be provided by strips of LED lights across the ceiling, but some by covering the whole of the walls of the subway with light boxes (illuminated panels). Their lead architect on the project said that these would be similar to those used in a subway at Kings Cross underground station, illustrated here

                                Light boxes in a subway at Kings Cross

The fixings for the light boxes would be positioned over joints between the tiles of the murals, so that the tile murals would not be damaged. The lighting could be left white, or could be used to display advertisements:

The light boxes at Kings Cross,
being used for advertising

Julian Tollast, Quintain’s Head of Masterplanning and Design, set out four options for the future of the tile murals, which could be included in their plans for the subway:

1.    The murals could be moved to a new location – although his view, and the general feeling at the meeting, was that this risked damaging or destroying the tile murals. It would also take them from their “spiritual home”.

2.   A facsimile of the murals could be created in a different location – His suggestion was that under the new Olympic Steps (replacing the pedway) might be a suitable location, but the downsides were that they would not be the originals, and not in their “spiritual home”.

3.   Preserve the murals in situ, with part on permanent display – It became clear in discussion that his suggestion was that all of the subway walls would still be covered by light boxes, but that the lights could be turned off in front of the section of the mural showing the old stadium and footballers (Bryan Robson and John Barnes?):

He said that this would not be ideal, as it would reduce the light levels in the subway, and there would be reflected light from the ceiling, off of the glazed light boxes, so that the view of the mural would be impaired.

4.   Preserve the murals in situ, with periodic display – Periodic display of the murals in the subway did not seem probable, because of the difficulty of removing the light boxes. He suggested that it would be possible to display the mural sections to the south of the subway (American football / Rugby League / Ice hockey on the east side, and a rock music drummer on the west) for short periods when the “Spiritflex” vinyl adverts were being changed.

One option which was not suggested by Quintain (but which was suggested from the floor of the meeting) was not to install the light boxes at all, but provide the better lighting instead just from redesigned lighting from the ceiling. The following slide was shown to justify Quintain’s right to install light boxes over the tile murals:

I have followed up on this planning process, and this is what I have found:-

·      15/5550 was a massive “Masterplan” outline application.

·      Although there is a brief mention of some improvements to the section of Olympic Way between Fulton Road and the foot of the Wembley Park Station steps, I have found no reference to ‘light boxes or adverts under Bobby Moore Bridge’ in that application.

·      There is no mention of these items in the 94 page Officers’ Report to Planning Committee (11 May 2016), or the December 2016 decision letter.

·      In amongst the wide-ranging detailed (reserved matters) application 17/3840, there is no mention of lighting in the subway in the planning submission.

·      There was a plan showing “illuminated panels”, which would cover all of the walls of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway. This is an extract from the relevant plan, which does not show the existing features on that wall, or that the lighting would cover tile murals:

·      Application 17/3840 was decided by planning officers, not Brent’s Planning Committee. In the “Delegated Report” there was no reference at all to the lighting proposals anywhere in the detailed considerations. On the basis of that report, the application was approved on 31 January 2018. 

Planning permission for the light boxes on the walls of the subway, which if installed will permanently conceal the tile murals, was therefore given by default, without the effect on the murals, and the loss of this asset to public view, ever being considered.

As shown by the meeting on 19^th October, and the options put forward at it, Quintain are willing to engage over ideas which could mitigate the damage to, and loss to public view of, the tile murals. However, as things stand, there is nothing to stop them from installing light boxes on the walls of the subway, which would permanently hide the main sections of the murals, if they decide to “just do it”.

Brent Council own the Bobby Moore Bridge and its subway. They are responsible for the murals, a major piece of public art illustrating a range of past famous events at the Stadium and Arena, which were installed in 1993 to be part of the Wembley atmosphere for the millions of people coming here.

Isn’t it time that Brent Council accepted that they have failed to give any proper consideration to what is happening to the tile murals, and intervene to broker a solution to the lighting in the subway, which not only preserves the murals, but paves the way for them to be returned to public view?

Philip Grant
(with thanks to Julian Tollast for all of the illustrations, from his presentation, used above)