Ken White – Swindon’s Mural Man. Known and loved by many Swindonians for the murals that once dotted the Swindonscape. Only one now remains, and that’s his first one, the Golden Lion Bridge mural.
If you haven’t heard of him and think you don’t know his work then you couldn’t be more wrong. An extract from the artist‘s website will explain:
‘Ken White is perhaps best known for his murals, sited in a wide variety of locations all over the world. To date, he has painted over one hundred murals.
He was, for many years, the personal artist for Virgin boss Richard Branson and has completed works for him in many Virgin establishments throughout the world, including record shops, hotels and airport lounges.
With the launch of Virgin Atlantic in 1984, Ken produced what is probably his most well known work: the “Scarlet Lady” emblem which features on all the airline’s aircraft’.
Image by Roger Ogle for Link Magazine
Ken’s early life
Life his brother and his father before him, Ken began his working life in the GWR works aged 15. He started out as a rivet hotter, later getting a move to sign writing in the carriage and wagon works.
As soon as he could he went to night classes at Swindon college to do his ‘O’ and ‘A’Levels in art. Those attained he left the works and entered Swindon’s art college to undertake a full-time art diploma.
Ken White – Swindon’s Mural Man
Ken’s mural painting activity didn’t restrict itself to Swindon though. As the personal artist for Richard Branson he travelled the world painting Virgin Megastores, airport lounges and more. You’ll find a great selection of Ken’s artistic output in this book: Ken White Muralist and Painter.
The Virgin Scarlet Lady
So yep. Not only has Ken painted murals all over the world he is the creator of Richard Branson’s ‘Scarlet Lady’. See, I said you’d know his work. So is he not something to celebrate about Swindon?
Well, as far as I’m concerned he’s worthy of his own place on my personal selection of ‘Ten things to celebrate about Swindon’list. Which I haven’t compiled in any particular order.
You can read more about Ken’s Swindon murals on SwindonWeb.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing anything of the West Swindon Sculpture Walk. This morning I chatted to someone on the bus about this, and she, a long-time resident of Swindon had no idea that these sculptures existed.
The route to this one takes you through a part of West Swindon I’d never even heard of, let alone walked through: The Bramptons. Blimey! It was like entering another universe. They have a club. With a swimming pool! It was all a bit Stepford actually.
White Horse Pacified
‘White Horse Pacified 1987. Artist: Julie Livsey. Materials: Steel and concrete. Project details: The sculpture was completed during an international artist exchange between Swindon and Lisbon, Portugal. Funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Southern Arts, Wiltshire County Council and Thamesdown Borough Council. The work is an interpretation of the famous chalk cut white horses surrounding Swindon’.
Promote it?!
A further point – the friend doing the walk with me lives in Bristol so this was all new to her. So by this point in the proceedings she voiced questions already in my mind: ‘Why is this not better known?’, Wouldn’t some signage be a good idea?’ and ‘Some labelling on the sculptures themselves could be quite good too’.
As I said earlier – people who’ve been here a long time – or even were born here – have no awareness of this thing as an entity. So what flippin’ chance does anyone else stand? SBC, Swindon and Wiltshire tourism – you are missing a trick!
Walk it, cycle it, picnic it!
You can walk or even cycle this trail. It can be pic-nic(ed) There’s pub stops and play parks and out-door gyms along the way. It’s a great with a dog. Yeah – if you want to romp through it all, you could do it in a couple of hours. But hey – you could actually make a whole day of this thing. But nobody knows about it! Well not enough people anyroad!!!
Anyway dear readers, next up is ‘Hey Diddle Diddle”. I’ll leave you to think on that one. Until next time…. Here is a link to a map of this sculpture trail.
It’s interesting how, since starting this blog, I’ve begun noticing things more. Apropos the subject of this post it’s less a case of noticing and more a case of paying some actual attention. Kiln Park West Swindon a case in point.
I live in West Swindon and regularly walk to the West Swindon Centre, my route to which traverses an area of open ground that forms a sort of ‘no-man’s land’ between the villages of Grange Park, Westlea and Freshbrook. On this area there sits a tree. The tree once was circled by a bench – now long gone.
However, what does still circle the tree are clay tiles. Clearly I’ve noticed both the tree and the tiles before but haven’t, until now, really given any thought about the message they bear:
Kiln Park 150 AD – 1989 with patterned tiles in between the tiles with text on them.
Roman History of Kiln Park West Swindon
Back in the day when the Romans were stamping around this area there was a large Roman pottery industry in West Swindon. Certainly the ground here is all clay. I eventually got rid of my lawn because it either was so dry and hard that it had cracks like the San Andreas Fault running through it – or it was like Flanders.
It is probable then that Swindon first began life as a settlement linked to a military encampment in the early days of the Roman occupation. The place that is now Swindon lay on the junction of two Roman roads. One leading south from Cirencester towards Marlborough and the other south eastwards to Silchester ( Ermin Street). Evidence exists to show that Swindon’s quarries were in use at this time to produce stone for villas and clay from the Whitehill region (now West Swindon) was used to produce Whitehill Ware pottery.
All of which is really rather fab and interesting is it not? An example of the seemingly small and mundane things that, at face value, appear insignificant but yet have history and stories behind them.
I really, really miss The Blondinis sculpture. It used to reside in Wharf Green and I loved it. It was bright and colourful and didn’t half brighten up a dull day – and goodness only knows we get enough of those! They’re now in St Mark’s park in Gorse Hill.
I know they weren’t everyone’s cup of tea being somewhat ‘loud’ but I really loved them. I’ll grant that they are indeed garishly-coloured. Imposing too at 17ft tall. In 1987 John Clinch(also responsible for Diana Dors) created the sculpture using scraps of aluminium from Swindon’s railway works. Indeed – the last thing ever cast in the Works in No 10 shop – cast in four sections and welded together. Below you see an image of part of the sculpture being cast.
Gary Hazell and Hughie Royle casting part of the Blondinis sculpture in the GWR WorksThe Blondinis Sculpture featured in Thamesdown News. Note – the Boldinis and even Bodinis- typos I assume?
Who were the Blondinis?
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the Great Blondinis were an acrobatic troupe who performed at circuses in Swindon in the 1920s.
The Great Blondinis – photo from Jess Robinson
I really don’t know if they are any relation to Charles Blondin, if it’s the same person or if this pair nicked the name. I’m not sure. But for info:
He moved to England later in his life, where he lived until his death in 1897. He’s buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London. There’s even a Blondin memorial trust: http://www.blondinmemorialtrust.com
Anyway…post the sudden disappearance from Wharf Green that left me quite bereft. Where had it gone? A quick furtle on the Internet found Duncan and Mandy’s website which reveals that the restored Blondinis now reside in St Mark’s park in the Ferndale/Gorse Hill area.
So, whilst it’s great to see them all cleaned up I remain sad that I don’t get to see them anymore.
Like all the sculptures on this trail, the mid-late 1980s saw its installed during the building of the western expansion.
The blurb we used on the walk describes the sculpture as inviting the observer to transport themselves into the future and view it as an archeological artefact from the 20th century. Which of course is somewhat the reality for it now …
Located on one of the many superb big green spaces that West Swindon features, it’s quite easy to forget that one is in the middle of a big conurbation. It needs little imagination to see the artist’s intention for the sculpture as a relic of a long gone civilization.
How the mighty Fall – 1989How the Mighty Fall – 1989
The thought provoking How the Mighty Fall
I really rather liked this piece of artwork – it’s definitely one of my favourites of the set. Certainly it brings transport to mind – from the initial approach it looks rather like an aeroplane that has crash-landed.
Viewed from behind it reminded me of some sort of carriage type conveyance with the ‘body’ of the carriage in the middle and the wheels either side. From one side there appears to be an impression of a face screaming – the eponymous mighty falling perhaps? In fact, whatever angle you look at it you see something new and thought provoking.
One doesn’t have to like a piece of art to find it interesting but I liked this one a lot. But hey – don’t take my word for it. Why not go and have a look for yourself and see what you make of it.
So far then, we found two on the list still in existence. But how many more of them did we find? And, given the passage of time since they were installed, what sort of condition did we find them in?
‘Installed in 1989 its creator invited observers to transport themselves into the future. He wanted them to view it as a 20th century archeological artefact. An envisioning made reality with the turn of the century and an invitation the visitor to this shape-shifting sculpture is compelled to accept as it neither willingly nor easily relinquishes its meaning.
Viewed from one angle you can see a crash-landed WWII aeroplane. A perception encouraged by the imprint it bears of arms and hands cupped around a mouth that appears to be screaming.
Walk right round to the other side of it and it changes completely. Now there’s a torso of man imprinted on the metal. Viewed from behind it becomes something else entirely, conjuring an image of a slender, silver, slither of a carriage with red wheels either side of it. In this view it’s emanating a sense of something alien, a sense of alterity.’
