Trivia: Railway related murals

[181]

These two panels on the outside of Sainsbury's in Surbiton (just down the road frm the station) are partly ralway-related:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surbiton,_Sainsbury's_mosaic_1.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surbiton,_Sainsbury's_mosaic_2.jpg

There was also once this in the station booking hall, although it's since been removed (or painted over).

 

[Lucan]

In High Street, Woking. The Up Slow platform is on the other side of the wall.

 

[fgwrich]

How could I forget, the Pokesdown station mural.

Flickr Search — “mural pokesdown station”

www.flickr.com

(not my photos, I've not been through for a while to see how it is these days)

 

[High Dyke]

A new installation at Lincoln Station celebrates the city, and some of its contributions to society. One of the panels is all about trains.

Lincoln-inspired artwork designed by school kids unveiled at train station

Brightening up the station with some Lincoln history

thelincolnite.co.uk

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Little Sutton has a number of railway related murals painted by local school children about 10 years ago. These have thankfully remained unvandalized gainsaying the occasional disparaging comments from some on this forum about the Ellesmere Port area. I'll take a picture next time I am down there. Little Sutton is remarkably well kept for an unstaffed station.

 

[WesternLancer]

These two panels on the outside of Sainsbury's in Surbiton (just down the road frm the station) are partly ralway-related:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fileurbiton,_Sainsbury's_mosaic_1.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fileurbiton,_Sainsbury's_mosaic_2.jpg

There was also once this in the station booking hall, although it's since been removed (or painted over).

some v interesting links there - esp the Surbiton interior stuff.

 

[swt_passenger]

Isn’t there something, (although bit tired looking), alongside P3 at Portsmouth and Southsea, ie against the incline up to the high level platforms?

 

[Bessie]

The road bridge by Martins Heron station has 2. On one side its Southern steam and the other it's Great Western steam.

 

[DarloRich]

Nuneaton has one as does ( or did) Crewe

 

[L401CJF]

As mentioned earlier, Wolverhampton station does indeed have a mural. Here's a part of it, featuring some of the city's more celebrated residents setting off on their travels.

View attachment 111486

(Credit Matt Hyde / Flickr)

2 I took today whilst passing. Very hard to get photos of with the glare!

 

[Peter C]

Banbury used to have a railway-themed mural overlooking the concourse:

Banbury train station mural to go under coffee shop plans

Campaigners criticise plans to move or cover a mural at an Oxfordshire train station to make way for a coffee shop.

www.bbc.co.uk

Banbury train station mural to go under coffee shop plans
​

Campaigners have criticised plans to move or cover up a mural at an Oxfordshire train station to make way for a coffee shop.
The artwork in Banbury station was painted to mark the 150th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's broad gauge railway.
Chiltern Railways wants to put a new Costa Coffee shop in place as part of a redevelopment of the concourse.
Banbury Civic Society said it should stay as it was a gift to the town.
The mural by artist Nigel Fletcher was commissioned by Railtrack in 2001.
Chad Collins, of Chiltern Railways, said: "The station has seen a huge increase in passenger numbers and yet the facilities have not been improved to match that.

'Awareness of heritage'​

"I understand the sentimental aspect but we are looking to make improvements to the station which will benefit the town.
"We have always said that we will either protect the mural or donate it to an organisation that are able to preserve it."
Rob Kinchin-Smith, of the Banbury Civic Society, said the rail company's decision lacked an "awareness of heritage".
"It's special because it was presented as a gift to the town. It was painted by the artist to fit this location.
"It presents a gateway to the historic town of Banbury, commemorating railway history."

I must say this has rather confused me, because I thought I remembered seeing it much later than the time this article says it was removed (2013).

-Peter

 

[Towers]

Isn’t there something, (although bit tired looking), alongside P3 at Portsmouth and Southsea, ie against the incline up to the high level platforms?

There certainly was a few years back! Pic here that I took back in 2017. It was definitely "tired", but amazing it was still there at all given the rich selection of long defunct names on it!

Particular highlights include logos for Allders department store and the long gone Red & Blue Admiral bus company, as well as an NSE liveried 442 (they appear to have been a staple requirement of every railway mural in the southeast!), and the front half of what is either the Pride of Portsmouth or Pride of Le Havre P&O ferry (also long since moved on to pastures new).

 

[johnnychips]

There is a massive mural on the side of the Frenchgate Centre in Doncaster directly opposite the station, part of which includes The Flying Scotsman.

https://i0.wp.com/inspiringcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_20211004_143119.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1

The image is from inspiringcity.com, whose website shows the other Doncaster-related themes of the paintings.

 

[fgwrich]

There certainly was a few years back! Pic here that I took back in 2017. It was definitely "tired", but amazing it was still there at all given the rich selection of long defunct names on it!

Particular highlights include logos for Allders department store and the long gone Red & Blue Admiral bus company, as well as an NSE liveried 442 (they appear to have been a staple requirement of every railway mural in the southeast!), and the front half of what is either the Pride of Portsmouth or Pride of Le Havre P&O ferry (also long since moved on to pastures new).

It just goes to show how much pride the South Western division of NSE Had in its shiny new 442s!

I’m sure there used to be something featuring a 442 in Southampton Central. There is of course the NSE and Maritime themed tiled walls of the overbridge.

 

[Towers]

How could I forget, the Pokesdown station mural.

Flickr Search — “mural pokesdown station”

www.flickr.com

(not my photos, I've not been through for a while to see how it is these days)

When I took a photo of it a while back the pedant in me couldn't help but notice the slight traction/dates issue....

Picture shows a segment of the Pokesdown mural depicting (of course!) a Class 442 and dated 1981, and a Bournemouth bus with a Bristol VR in the background (presumably from a photograph taken at a bus rally) with a date of 1962!

Amazing bit of work though!

 

[306024]

There’s a mural platform 1, Marks Tey

And here‘s a link to it:

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/abo...-painted-college-students-brightens-marks-tey

 

[mmh]

I'm surprised the "To The Trains" mosaic at Waterloo, in one of the arches between the bus stops on Waterloo Road and the main entrance, doesn't seem to have been mentioned. Here's a link to a picture of it: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/...XKNSCPXLJZWPI34YOBNU/IMG_2252.JPG?format=750w

There's another pointing in the opposite direction for "Buses This Way": https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/...007TF8QKRZ2NSJVKH8OL/IMG_2256.JPG?format=750w

 

[sprinterguy]

2 I took today whilst passing. Very hard to get photos of with the glare!

Yeah, the one at Wolverhampton is a particular favourite of mine, though difficult to photograph as you say due to the glare from the lights!

There's a partially similar mural on Monument station in Newcastle, "Famous Faces" by Bob Olley, that should be familiar to regular users of the Tyne and Wear Metro and recently reached its twenty fifth birthday:

Metro's Famous Faces mural celebrates its 25th year

Fourteen of Tyneside’s most charismatic figures, painted by Bob Olley, are seen looking out of the window of a Metro train carriage.

www.robsongreen.co.uk

And back on the West Coast route (and it's branches), there's also a pair of murals in the subway at Stoke-on-Trent station which I presume were commissioned around the same time as the one at Wolverhampton:

18 fascinating photos from behind the scenes at Stoke-on-Trent station

It includes the tunnels under the tracks

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

Cool wall art stoke on Trent railway station

Explore christian gittings' 934 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

I've always thought that the train in the steam-era one looks a lot more like "River Mite" and a rake of Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway stock than anything representatively LMS.

 

[WesternLancer]

Lots of good posts on here (starting to wonder where doesn't have a mural!), but it got me thinking - many of these date from the 80s onwards - making the railway a significant commissioner of public art - but can anyone recall if murals on the railway were a thing in say in the 60s and 70s? - or even before - excepting tiled route maps etc.

Do any survive from that period? Did any even exist?

Of course murals don't last forever due to weather, changes in buildings etc - tho of course ceramic tiled ones could last a long time.

 

[AY1975]

Doncaster and Plymouth both used to have murals in the subway.

So did Vauxhall - it had a mural featuring a large red BR double arrow logo. Here's a short thread on it from 2019: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-station-subway-ceiling-br-mural.176045/

There is (or there was a few years ago) a very impressive mural on one of the platforms at Pokesdown featuring various pictures of trains and old Bournemouth trams, buses and trolleybuses. However, I see that Pokesdown now has a mural of doves in the sky on one of the platforms that was unveiled a couple of years ago so not sure if that replaced the transport-themed one or has been done on the opposite platform.

 

[WesternLancer]

Lots of good posts on here (starting to wonder where doesn't have a mural!), but it got me thinking - many of these date from the 80s onwards - making the railway a significant commissioner of public art - but can anyone recall if murals on the railway were a thing in say in the 60s and 70s? - or even before - excepting tiled route maps etc.

Do any survive from that period? Did any even exist?

Of course murals don't last forever due to weather, changes in buildings etc - tho of course ceramic tiled ones could last a long time.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Newport one's very good, although there's a glaring error which does annoy me every time I pass it.

Quite simply, it's supposed to be Newport Castle, but the number is wrong ... and it didn't even belong to a Castle Class loco either! I accept that many people wouldn't / won't know, but the sculptor obviously did a lot of work on the design, so you'd have thought that he / she would have got the number right?

 

[oldman]

Colinton tunnel on the Caley Balerno branch in Edinburgh has a recently-painted mural celebrating local history with some railway scenes

 

[306024]

The famous Frinton gates:

 

[topydre]

There's murals at a lot of stations on the Cambrian Lines, many of them (understandably) depicting trains/locomotives e.g. Borth, Newtown, Tywyn etc

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Some photos of the murals at Little Sutton station which I promised to post last month. These are now 10 years old so there has been a little more wear and tear than I remembered.

 

[londontransit]

There's a mural in Forest Hill opposite the station. It shows railways trams and of course the Croydon canal (which was taken over by the railway.)

Many stations in south London have huge station totem murals including Worcester Park, Malden Manor, Tolworth, Chessington, Lee, Catford, Brockley, Nunhead, Selhurst, Barnes Bridge, and others - its said there's over 100 of these dotted around the Southern network.

Even London Waterloo has one that incorporates the station's approach road clock.

 

[phantomphish]

There's a mural in Forest Hill opposite the station. It shows railways trams and of course the Croydon canal (which was taken over by the railway.)

Many stations in south London have huge station totem murals including Worcester Park, Malden Manor, Tolworth, Chessington, Lee, Catford, Brockley, Nunhead, Selhurst, Barnes Bridge, and others - its said there's over 100 of these dotted around the Southern network.

Even London Waterloo has one that incorporates the station's approach road clock.

The totem murals you refer to in South London are the work of Lionel Stanhope, they are very popular in the local communities and I am very pleased to have been involved to a varying extent in the relatively recent projects that have seen some really nice examples of them painted at Tulse Hill, Gipsy Hill, West Norwood, and Birkbeck.

There are some lovely little mosaic roundels by Maude Milton, mostly around Overground stations in NE London but also with examples at Selhurst and Thornton Heath.

North Dulwich also has a mural on platform 1 called "The Journey Up" which was done by local students and installed in 1994.

That's just a tiny bit of South London - there's plenty of railway mural artwork around when you start looking for it!