Public Art

As a Landscape Architect, including public art installations in each scheme adds interest and drama and cnnects the site to the location and history. It introduces humour, and stimulatesthe imagination.

In London Docklands there was opportunity to include a range of ideas in the Landscape. it is important to consult with the local community at the initial stages of an idea. When I arrived at Docklands in 1987, one of the first meetings I attended upon arrival was with a Developer and the Owner of a site on the river front near Tower bridge

As I went in to this meeting I was presented with a petition from local residents requesting the removal of a statue therein as the figure depicted was involved in slavery. I raised this with the owner and the developer but neither had the resources to do anything. I asked within Docklands if the statue could be replaced but unless the expenditure of money attracted investment, the LDDC would not fund it. It remained until its removal in 2020 by the local authority.

The central image above is of the bas relief commissioned for Stave Hill, by michael Rizello. this is a brilliant piece of work in the centre of the Surrey Docks peninsula. It represents in bronze the docks as tehy were in the eighteenth century, and the visitor can look around and see how the landscape has changed since. As an additional touch, when it rains, the docks fill with water!

The other images are of Dr Salter and his Daughter and the Deal Porters.

This colossal bust of James Walker, Engineer, s located at Greenland Dock, which he designed and built. It is by Michael Rizzello.