A gharial returns and a mural is refreshed
Ink Heritage Focus - on two iconic facets of Swindon's rich history
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This is our monthly ‘Heritage focus’ edition which will normally appear on the third Thursday of every month. The first Thursday is ‘Business’, and the second Thursday of the month is ‘Environment’, and the final Thursday is ‘Food & Drink’.
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A magnificent work of art and another treasure also loved by generations
By local historian and author Angela Atkinson
There’s been something of a flurry of feel-good stories in Swindon of late – and that’s rather nice! Among them we’ve had:
1. The long-awaited return of the gharial – aka the Swindon croc – to Museum and Art Swindon. And …
2. …. a marvellous refresh of Swindon-born artist Ken White’s 1976 Golden Lion Bridge mural.
I’ll start with the latter of those.
In a project made possible by Swindon Borough Council and the grass-roots artist collective Artsite and the Post-Modern, Swindon artist Tim Carroll has done a splendid job with Ken’s last remaining mural. Before I get on to more mural musings, I’d like to mention that Artsite have, in recent years, brought about a steady transformation to Theatre Square – proving always that there are people in this town who value things and who look after things.
Anyway, back to the mural.
It’s worth noting at this point that murals (exterior ones in particular) are, by their very nature, transient things. They’re often commissioned to disguise something unattractive on a temporary basis. Think of the hoardings around the Mechanics’ Institute and the Kimmerfields area – and can we stop calling it that? What was wrong with Whalebridge? Or even Queenstown? Please and thank you.
That said, transient or otherwise, it does seem both sad and more than a bit careless that Swindon has managed to lose all but this one of several murals with which Ken adorned gable ends across the town. But if we’re saving only one then it’s fitting that it’s this one. It was Ken’s first one for a start. Further, it’s the one that played a leading role in putting Ken in front of Richard Branson. And therein lies a tale.
What you see in this image is an extract from my book about Ken White. It shows a youthful Ken, in 1976, stood with the newly-painted mural behind him, on the junction of Princes Street and Fleming Way.
The second image shows the rejuvenated mural. Note that it now has an extra figure in it: Ken himself. And that’s not the first time Ken’s found himself placed in a mural. There’s a nod to him in the Cambria Bridge mural – because he himself once had a mural there.