Page 24 - link magazine

Visit town’s new time-travelling mural
A new community mural which looks at Swindon during the 175 years since
the Great Western Railway came to the town has been created on the Cambria
Bridge Road embankment in the town centre.
In pre-railway times the road passed over the 18th Century canal. In the early
1980s Swindon artist Ken White painted a mural depicting life next to it.
The new 70 metre artwork by local artists Ed Russell and James Habgood of
The Visual Drop depicts key people, buildings and organisations, linked together
by an old style police box at one end and the Dr Who Tardis at the other. It
has been produced in collaboration with members of The Railway Kids youth
club run by the Mechanics’ Institution Trust, and in partnership with Swindon
Council.
Trust community worker Hannah Parry said: “The wall overlooking the play
area was in a poor condition and we were asked to come up with a new mural.
While it was being repaired this summer Ed and James talked to club members
about the places and the people who have made Swindon special.”
Everybody they talked to asked for Dr Who’s police box to be kept. Ken
originally painted it because of the shape and size of the pillar at the end of the
wall, but it gave Ed and James the storyline for their work.
At one end is the police box with a dedication to Ken, at the other is the Tardis
spinning through space. In between,
represented by a milky way of time and
space are images of Swindon.
Hannah said: “Ed and James came up
with the great idea of time travel with
their collaborator Justin Smythe to tell
the story of Swindon through the ages.
The youth club members loved their
design.”
James said it was really important to
feature Ken on the wall. “As the artist
who made Swindon famous for its murals
in the 70s and 80s, many of which are
Swindon’s forefathers IK Brunel sadly no longer here, we wanted to show
and Daniel Gooch
our appreciation for his work.

24 swindonlink.com n November 2015