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JOY RIDE

JOY RIDE, CENTRAL SQUARE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1031588
Date first listed:: 14-Apr-1998
List Entry Name:: JOY RIDE
Statutory Address:: JOY RIDE, CENTRAL SQUARE

User submitted image — Uploaded by Historic England Archive This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Location

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Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2004-03-07
Reference:: IOE01/11527/14
Rights:: © Mr Peter Warwick. Source: Historic England Archive

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Also of interest

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1031588
Date first listed:: 14-Apr-1998
List Entry Name:: JOY RIDE
Statutory Address 1:: JOY RIDE, CENTRAL SQUARE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: JOY RIDE, CENTRAL SQUARE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: Stevenage (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TL 23795 24091

Details

TL2324 STEVENAGE CENTRAL SQUARE

733-0/3/10006 Joy-ride

GV II

Sculpture. 1958-9 by Franta Belsky. Bronze mother and child on circular stone plinth, the mother carrying her little boy on her back. The mother figure is remarkable for the integration of her dress and skin as a single, tensile form. Franta Belsky (1921- ) came to Britain in 1938 from Bmo, Czechoslovakia, and combined studies at the Royal College of Art with military service. Although today as well known as a portraitist as for his public sculpture, it was with 'Joy-ride' and the slightly earlier 'Lesson' (LB Tower Hamlets, 1956) that he achieved maturity. He was commissioned by Stevenage Development Corporation to produce something symbolic for a recently created New Town, the Corporation having been inspired by the use of symbolic sculpture in the rebuilding of bombed Rotterdam. The figures are thus symbolic of the arrival of a new generation in a New Town. The vertical composition with its high centre of interest is a response to its setting on top of a platform with stairs and railings to either side, and a carefully preserved group of trees below. It is amongst his most distinctive works, specifically designed for a distinguished location. (Franta Belsky: Sculpture: Prague and London: -1922).

Listing NGR: TL2379524091

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 469097
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Belsky, F, Sculpture, (1922)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.