Listing is not an end in itself – it should be springboard for action
HAD you been passing by Hockley Circus on a sunny Saturday morning in May 2019, you might have wondered what was going on - cameras, people with brooms clearing the area and tables of food laid out.
We were preparing a Brutiful Birmingham event to draw attention to a vast and not widely known sculptural work by the artist William Mitchell. Commonly dubbed the Climbing Wall, the name gives a clue to what we were planning. Members of the University of Birmingham Mountaineering Club were preparing to climb the walls and plot new routes for others to follow.
Happily, our Hockley Circus event attracted wide media coverage leading the Twentieth Century Society to take up the cause and make a successful bid to list the murals. Their Grade ll listing status now means that they are nationally protected, and the quality of Mitchell’s work in Birmingham is finally recognised.
Is it time for the bas relief panels on Quayside Tower in Broad Street to be similarly recognised?
The Hockley flyover, which Mitchell described as “one of the greatest things that ever happened in this country because it was the first of its kind and certainly of its scale” was opened in 1968. The murals reflect a mid-20th century movement for public art to be commissioned to enhance otherwise utilitarian structures. The 12ft high sculptural friezes extend around two sides of the immense space beneath the flyover. The walls are composed of abstract patterns modelled in high relief, each exploring different themes.
The first, in white concrete, consists of geometric panels depicting intriguing symbols, which seem to be drawn from ancient cultures, set in natural rock formations. To the right of this wall, terracotta coloured concrete has been formed into powerful wedge and circle motifs with patterns resembling Aztec symbols. To the right again and running all the way to the end of the space is the third mural. Cast in plain concrete, it features an abstract composition of complex and irregular vertical ribs textured with an array of repeated circular and sharp angled motifs.
Interviewed in 2017, Mitchell expressed his concept for the work: “It could appear as though it was a natural thing that was there, and we just discovered it … you’ve got this piece of land and just by chance you happened to be digging it and you come across this underpass.”
We celebrate that national listing now protects the sculpture, but listing is just the start. When we first visited the site some years ago the underground approaches to the space were unpleasant to say the least, stinking of urine, piled with litter, and reeking of neglect. Our recent visit revealed it to be much improved.
Where the street artists have made their magnificent graffiti works on the walls of three of the tunnels, they are kept clean and tidy.
The other two tunnels, however, are in a filthy condition and the surrounding area shows no sign of recent street cleaning. Inept attempts to cover the “tags” sprayed on the walls with dirty blue-grey or pink paint has only further defaced them.
Unfortunately, Grade ll listing places no obligation on the City Council to maintain the murals.
Surely the honour of listing must be the cue to recognise the possibilities inherent in this neglected treasure.
The original intention was for a thriving public space with magnificent landscaping, sales kiosks, and public conveniences. The landscaping remains, the trees and planting have matured and now the whole place is a wonderful, leafy but sadly run-down oasis in a residential area that has so much potential.
Listing means that Hockley Circus cannot just be bulldozed away. As Birmingham emerges from the motor car age and takes steps to curb pollution and quieten the roads, there is every reason to do something with it.
Regular street cleaning would be a start. A decent design scheme of park landscaping for the vast, barren central plaza would transform this place into a wonderful leisure resource for the local community.
While we were exploring the area, we chatted to a chap who has lived there most of his life. He told us, “You should go and look underneath (the flyover); it is lovely”. When we told him the murals are now listed, he replied, “What the concrete monstrosities?... that is what people called them.” And went on to say,” I have always loved them; just think from concrete monstrosity to protected…. I like to go and sit there but there is nowhere to sit only the wall”.
If what he said in any way reflects a local view, there would be every reason to encourage the community to support and participate in initiatives to bring Hockley Circus back into use.
While several of William Mitchell’s works such as the vast sculptural retaining wall in Kidderminster and the Three Tuns Pub in Coventry have been listed, many are still under threat as the buildings they are part of are redeveloped or demolished. A vibrant, coloured fibreglass frieze that graced the foyer of the now demolished Lucas HQ near Solihull is reported to have been removed to storage, and apparently damaged in the process. We wonder if that will ever see the light of day again.
Too often national listing is seen as an end in itself; it is not enough. We have seen so many listed works of public art neglected, lost in undergrowth, and left, uncared for, to deteriorate. We applaud Historic England for looking after our past but there is not nearly strong enough an expectation that owners of these irreplaceable assets will look after them for the future.
Brutiful Birmingham is a group committed to saving the best of Birmingham’s late 20th century heritage.