Milward Square including mosaic murals

Summary

A shopping centre atrium dating to 1981, with alterations around 1993, featuring a mural by Scottish artist and sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi, unveiled in 1983. The mural consists of 12 mosaic panels featuring a collage of images symbolising the impact of Redditch’s needle industry.

Reasons for Designation

Milward Square, including the mosaic mural by Eduardo Paolozzi is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* For the exceptional quality, craftsmanship and survival of the mosaic mural by Eduardo Paolozzi, which combines iconography reflecting the region's industrial heritage, contemporary media, pop culture and technology with recognisable motifs from Paolozzi’s oeuvre.

Historic interest:

* the mosaic mural is the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, an internationally important and influential artist, widely credited as being one of the forerunners of the Pop Art movement.

History

The Kingfisher shopping centre in Redditch was constructed in three phases between 1970 and 1981. It was designed by architect Graham Reddie, with project architect Ian Downs (succeeded by Trevor Etherington), and engineers Ove Arup and partners. Part of the third phase of construction included a double-height pedestrianised atrium to serve as a junction between the internal walkways of Park Walk and Walford Walk, and the east car park. Originally called Walford Square, the name of the atrium was changed to Milward Square in recognition of the Milward family who were closely associated with Redditch’s needle making industry. In 1981 the Redditch Development Corporation invited proposals for an artwork to be installed in Milward Square. The brief was to prepare ‘a feature/artwork relating to the most significant industry base within Redditch, namely needles’, and funding was made available by the Redditch Development Corporation, the Needles Industry Group and the Arts Council of Great Britain.

The commission was awarded to Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), a pioneering British artist and sculptor, born in Edinburgh to Italian parents. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, producing early works influenced by Surrealism before developing a distinctive style combining mechanistic forms and human imagery. Paolozzi worked across sculpture, collage, ceramics, print and film, and held teaching posts in London, Munich and Edinburgh. A founding member of the Independent Group of artists, writers and thinkers, Paolozzi is credited as being one of the forerunners of the Pop Art movement. He was awarded a CBE in 1968, appointed Her Majesty’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1986 and was knighted in 1988.

For the Redditch commission, Paolozzi conferred with experts on Redditch’s needle industry and consulted sources at the V&A and British Museum, evolving a concept from the museum’s upper Egyptian galleries for the perspective and interpretation of detail. He designed a series of 12 mosaics for the upper part of the atrium of Milward Square. They were intended to create what he called a ‘multi-evocative metaphor, floating in some cases against woven material, symbolising the uses and results of the needle in its widest sense – a vital tool for the uniting of many substances in both a global and metaphysical sense’. The design of the panels drew on symbols of the region's industrial heritage, and contemporary media, pop culture and technology with recognisable motifs from Paolozzi’s oeuvre. The designs were drawn and hand coloured by Paolozzi, then scaled up and photocopied to equalise the colours, before being collaged together. Using Paolozzi’s designs, individual pieces of glass were hand-painted and cut by craftsman in Spilimbergo, northern Italy; a town with a mosaic-making tradition dating back two centuries. Paolozzi chose glass tiles for their 'extreme permanence', ability to 'retain their brilliance in perpetuity', and ‘worryfree’ maintenance. It took three craftsmen two weeks to instal the work in position. The murals were unveiled in 1983 by Sir William Rees-Mogg, Chairman of the Arts Council, ahead of the official opening of Milward Square during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Redditch on 5 July 1983.

In 1993 the metal trussed ceiling of Milward square was replaced with a central barrel-vaulted roof lantern supported on slender columns. Ducting was also removed, and where this had originally pierced through two of the mosaic panels, the holes were covered with circular blanking plates. Conservation works were carried out to the mosaic panels in 2015, and in 2016, additional lighting was installed.

Details

A shopping centre atrium dating to 1981, with alterations around 1993, featuring a mural by Scottish artist and sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi, unveiled in 1983. The mural consists of 12 mosaic panels featuring a collage of images symbolising the impact of Redditch’s needle industry.

MATERIALS: the mural panels are constructed of hand coloured and cut glass.

PLAN: Milward Square is a rectangular atrium at the intersection of Park Walk, Walford Walk and the walkway to the East car park. It is enclosed on all sides by the wider Kingfisher shopping centre (not included in this List entry).

DESCRIPTION: twelve mosaic panels, designed by Eduardo Paolozzi, are set into each of the first-floor bays at the centre of the double-height atrium each measuring 6.5m wide by 3.5m tall (21ft by 10ft). The colourful panels are a collage of images from a variety of subject matter, including Redditch’s local industries of needle making and aerospace; C20 technologies in travel, medicine and photography; and contemporary pop culture. These are combined with repeated abstract motifs such as vertical bands, circles and lozenges. Some pictorial elements, including an astronaut, aeroplane, saxophone and bird, are composed from irregular shards of glass in contrast to the otherwise pixelated images formed from uniformly square tiles.

The atrium includes eight slender columns with banded capitals supporting a barrel-vaulted roof latern. The arched lantern trusses are pierced and the lantern base features a geometric relief pattern. Double-height piers vertically divide the walls of the atrium into twelve equal bays, and a deep facia band bisects the space horizontally. Bay-width openings on the north, east and west sides of the atrium, give access to the wider shopping centre, and there are shop fronts to the remaining ground-floor bays (not included in the listing).

NOTE ON SPECIAL INTEREST: the special interest of Milward Square relates to the mosaic murals by Eduardo Paolozzi. The atrium and murals have a clear conceptual and functional relationship with each other and any works to the atrium have the potential to affect the character of the listed building and may still require Listed Building Consent, which is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.

Sources

Books and journals
Collins, Judith, Eduardo Paolozzi, (2014), p254

Websites
Redditch Kingfisher website, ‘Paolozzi Mosaics’,, accessed 4 November 2025 from https://www.kingfishershopping.co.uk/visiting/paolozzi-mosaics
Eduardo Paolozzi Biography, accessed 4 November 2025 from http://paolozzifoundation.org/biography/

Other
Gallen, N and Butchard, D, 'Milward Square including murals by Eduardo Paolozzi', unpublished research and archive material, 16 December 2025.
Redditch Local History Society Newsletter, November 2019, Vol 1, Issue 8.
Birmingham Post, 'Kingfisher Centre Set for Revamp', 26 January 1993, p5.

End of official list entry

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