The photos accompanying this piece show the mural very much as a
"Work in progress" and were taken in April 2001.
I often drive through Stockwell, South London on my way into London
and has noticed the work being done on an old contrete structure on
a triangular traffic island just a few hundred yards north of the
Underground station.
In fact you could hardly miss it because it's very brightly coloured.
But I was interested to see that there was a depiction of various
wartime motifs and the British Legion memorial prayer "At the going
down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them".
So imagine my surprise when one day I noticed they'd added a picture
of Violette Szabo!! I was so distracted I almost drove straight into
the traffic lights.
Then one day I saw someone working on it, so I stopped and asked about
it. I was told that it had started as a project in a local school and
the children had all drawn various paintings showing the history and
cultural diversity of the area.
These were then "tidied up" by local artists and put into a design for
the mural that we see before us today.
Apparantly they had a few complaints about the pistol pointed to
Violette's head. Although historically accurate it was felt to be a
bit too much so was painted over.
As you go round the other side you can see various other things such
as the Empire Windrush that brought the first wave of Carribean
immigrants who came to help us after the war. There are big red London
buses (there's a bus garage just down the road) and many other things.
It's a lovely piece of work. I told the lady artist that I had been to
the opening of the
Violette Szabo Museum
in Herefordshire and had long been interested in that inspirational
lady. So I was put in touch with the artist in charge and invited
along to the official opening on June 26th 2001 (which would have
been Violette's 80th birthday)
