William Mitchell murals in the pedestrian concourse of Hockley Flyover, Hockley Circus

Summary

Three concrete relief murals within the concourse to Hockley Flyover, designed by William Mitchell Design Consultants and constructed around 1968.

Reasons for Designation

The three mural walls by William Mitchell in the concourse beneath Hockley Flyover are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an important work in the oeuvre of sculptural artist, William Mitchell;
* for its remarkable survival as a high-quality example of C20 public art incorporated into transportation architecture;
* for the quality, artistic inventiveness and attention to detail of Mitchell’s deeply profiled surface finishes, seemingly designed to encourage public interaction with the artwork.

Historic interest:

* as a fine example of the commissioning of art works by private companies and local authorities for exhibition in the public realm in the post-war era;
* as a key feature in the development of Hockley Circus.

History

The Hockley flyover was designed in the 1960s to relieve traffic on a section of the Inner Ring Road at Hockley Hill, notorious at the time for being one of the most acutely congested traffic junctions in Birmingham. The flyover took two and a half years to complete and was opened on 1 April 1968 by Bertram Wearing, chairman and managing director of Joseph Lucas Ltd. The new flyover was composed of an overpass with a sunken concourse beneath, accessed through a series of underpasses. The concourse was designed as a public space with landscaping, paved areas, public conveniences and three glass kiosks, two of which were intended to be let as shops and the third as a café, though these were later removed. The Birmingham Corporation commissioned three design teams to submit proposals for murals to be placed around the entrances to the underpasses and they chose designs by William Mitchell Design Consultants.

William Mitchell (1925-2020) was a prolific and innovative architectural sculptor who worked in various materials but most notably concrete. He began his career in the 1950s as a Design Consultant for London County Council and set up his own company in the 1960s. He gained an international reputation for his highly textured, abstract reliefs and murals, often referred to as Aztec or pagan in style, though Mitchell denied there being any conscious influence. He worked with highly respected architects and engineers of the time, including Ove Arup and Sir Frederick Gibberd, and his work appeared in many public settings such as schools, subways and public housing developments.

Mitchell produced three unique murals for Hockley Circus composed from natural and coloured concrete. They were formed by pouring concrete into polyurethane moulds and, once cast, were treated with bush hammers and sand blasted. The resultant surface was said to be weather and vandal proof. Mitchell noted in his autobiography that the treatment of the external face of the underpass provided climbing opportunities for the adventurous. Part of the mural featured on the cover of the book ‘Concrete Finishes for Highway Structures’ published by the Cement and Concrete Association in 1972.

Details

Three concrete relief murals within the concourse to Hockley Flyover, designed by William Mitchell Design Consultants and constructed by 1968.

MATERIALS: the murals are constructed from cast, pigmented concrete.

PLAN: the murals wrap around the underpass openings on the south-east and south-west sides of the concourse.

DESCRIPTION: the three murals feature abstract patterns in deep relief. There are unifying motifs, including donuts, sunbursts and repeating geometric patterns, though each panel has its own character. The mural on the south-east side of the concourse is suggested to have originally been cast in white concrete. It is composed of geometric panels, deeply profiled surface finishes and textured areas simulating the appearance of natural rock. The terracotta wall features triangular wedges and circle motifs interspersed with patterns resembling Aztec symbols. The third mural appears to be cast of unpigmented concrete and features a series of vertical ribs and shards protruding at varying depths.

Sources

Books and journals
Mitchell, William, Self Portrait: The Eyes Within, (2013), 111

Websites
Seb Smart, The Hockley Flyover – Interview with Bill Mitchell 31 October 2017, accessed 13 January 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6NBJN535lE

Other
‘They’re the oddest – and toughest’, The Birmingham Post, 22 March 1968, p.3
'Flyover to be Opened Today', The Birmingham Post, 1 April 1968

End of official list entry

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