A guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
The Olympic Torch tile mural, covered over since 2013.
It is nearly six years since I first wrote about the Bobby Moore Bridge
tile murals at Wembley Park, and a request
by Wembley History Society to Brent Council and Quintain that they should be
put back on permanent public display.
Now, at last, there is a real opportunity to make that happen, which is
why I have launched an online petition, and why I am writing now to encourage
Wembley Matters readers to sign it, please. The petition statement says:
We the undersigned call upon Brent Council, and its
Cabinet making the decision on the Award of a Contract for the Bobby Moore
Bridge Advertising Lease, to only award a lease from 31 August 2024 for
advertising on the parapets of the bridge, and not on the walls of the subway,
so that the heritage tile murals on those walls can be put back on public
display.
The petition is on Brent Council’s website, and you can find it HERE.
Brent’s 15 February 2024 advert on the Contracts Finder portal.
The opportunity has come because the current Bobby Moore Bridge
advertising lease expires on 30 August 2024. Following a suggestion I made to
Brent’s then Chief Executive in 2021, the new lease is being advertised through
an open tender process (rather than through a private deal with Quintain),
which may mean that the Council receives a higher rental income.
Crucially, again at my suggestion, potential suppliers must make two
bids, one for advertising solely on the parapets of the bridge (with a minimum
annual income guarantee of £90,000) and one for advertising on the bridge parapets
and the walls of the subway (minimum annual income guarantee £100,000).
The advertising lease contract opportunity was published on 15 February,
with bids to be submitted by 12noon on Monday 18 March. The decision on who to
award the new advertising lease to, and which option to award the lease for, is
due to be made by Brent’s Cabinet on 28 May. I’m hoping that the difference in
the two best bids will be small enough to persuade Cabinet members to award a
lease only for advertising on the bridge parapets!
As the light panels which currently cover most of the tile mural scenes
in the subway (between Wembley Park Station/Olympic Square and Olympic Way)
were installed for advertising purposes, this would mean that they have to be
removed, so that all of the remaining tile mural scenes can be put back on
permanent public display.
Composite image showing tile murals on the west wall of the subway.
(Image thought to be by Amanda Rose, for Quintain,
in 2019)
The documents issued by Brent Council for the tender process included a
“location” sheet, with photographs of the tile murals on the subway walls. The
composite view of the west wall mural scenes included some which I did not have
images of before. The basketball player, with yellow shorts, probably
represents the Harlem Globetrotters team, who played exhibition matches at
Wembley Arena every year from 1950 through to 1982. They were a big attraction,
and I remember watching them as a boy, on a black and white television set.
A Harlem Globetrotters basketball game at Wembley in the 1950s. (Wembley History Society Collection)
The singer, with accompanist on a grand piano, may well represent Shirley
Bassey, who was one of the stars in the first popular music concert at Wembley
Arena in 1959, and performed there most recently in 2003. These are just parts
of Wembley’s sports and entertainment heritage that the Bobby Moore Bridge tile
murals celebrate. It is that heritage which I believe it’s important that
Wembley Park residents and visitors deserve to have returned to them!
The petition is supported by background information, which I submitted
with it. A Council Governance Officer informed me that they had made several
‘factual amendments’ to it, and although I told them that what I had written
was factually correct, I had to accept their version, so my petition could be published.
For those interested, I will set out my original text below. Council
Officers did not want you to know that Cabinet members were not told about the
tile murals when they were asked to award the current advertising lease, and
that the lease was secretly extended by three years (in a very “dodgy deal”!).
Background information:
The Bobby Moore Bridge and subway were created
under a 1991 Brent Council scheme to pedestrianise Olympic Way, in advance of
the 1996 Euros football tournament. With support from Wembley Stadium, the
Council commissioned a large public artwork to decorate the walls of the subway
from the station, and the Olympic Way walls as you emerge from the subway.
That public artwork was a ceramic tile mural, made
up of individual scenes celebrating a variety of sports and entertainment
events from the history of Wembley Stadium and Arena. These Bobby Moore Bridge
tile murals were designed to welcome the millions of people passing through the
subway each year, on their way to stadium and arena events, with a colourful
reminder of Wembley Park’s heritage.
The subway was officially opened in September 1993
by the widow of the former World Cup-winning England football captain, who
unveiled a plaque set into one of the mural scenes, showing England footballers
playing at the “twin towers” Wembley Stadium, naming the bridge ‘in honour of a
football legend’.
Stephanie Moore, opening the subway and its
murals in 1993. (Courtesy of Ray Pepper)
In 2013, Brent Council granted an advertising lease
which allowed a Quintain subsidiary to cover the murals on the tile walls with
vinyl advertising sheets, and to erect advertising signs on the walls above
both entrances to the subway. Brent’s Cabinet agreed to grant a further
four-year advertising lease in January 2018, but were not told about the tile
murals on the subway walls, which the adverts would continue to hide from
public view.
In 2019, Quintain applied for, and were given
(despite strong public opposition), permission to install LED light panels, to
be used for advertising, on the walls of the subway, and larger advertising
screens on the bridge parapets. The only concession they made, after
campaigning by Wembley History Society, was to put the “footballers” mural
scene on the east wall of the subway back on permanent public display. Later
that year, Council Officers secretly extended the advertising lease for a
further three years, to 30 August 2024.
During the 2019 planning process, Brent
acknowledged that the Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals were a heritage asset. At
the start of Brent’s year as London Borough of Culture, in January 2020, three
of the large tile mural scenes on the east wall of Olympic Way, just outside of
the subway were put back on temporary display. The Council publicised the
event, saying:
‘The tiles, which show scenes from famous sports
and entertainment events at Wembley Stadium and the SSE Arena, Wembley, are
part of Brent’s rich heritage.’
The tile murals in Olympic Way are now back
on permanent public display.
The end of the current advertising lease is an
opportunity to allow Wembley Park’s residents and visitors to enjoy all of the
tile murals in the subway again, for the first time since 2013. Potential
advertisers have been asked to submit two bids in the tender process for the
new advertising lease. One bid will be for adverting on the bridge parapets
only, and the other will be for the bridge parapets and the subway walls.
Brent’s Forward Plan shows that the decision on the
award of the new advertising lease is scheduled for the Cabinet meeting on 28
May 2024. This petition aims to show the level of support from people in the
borough for the tile mural scenes in the subway to be put back on permanent
public display.
Composite image showing tile murals on the east wall of the subway.
(Image thought to be by Amanda Rose, for Quintain,
in 2019)
I hope you’ll agree that these colourful tile mural scenes do deserve to
be back on display, so that everyone passing through the subway can enjoy them,
and get a feel for a century of Wembley Park’s history as “the venue of
legends”.
It will only take a couple of minutes online to sign the
petition, passing a couple of security
tests to show that you live, work or study in Brent, and that you are a real
person, not some automated “bot”. When you get to the final page, which repeats
the petition, please scroll down to the bottom, where you will find the “SIGN
PETITION” box to click on. Thank you!
Philip Grant.