The Wednesford Chronicles

I do like these transitory misguided elements of putting lipstick on pigs in your 60s/70s municipal wastelands; a bit like the Hepworth statues that stood in the Mander Centre for snotty kids (like me) to clamber all over when Dad had popped into Tesco.

12 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

I do like these transitory misguided elements of putting lipstick on pigs in your 60s/70s municipal wastelands; a bit like the Hepworth statues that stood in the Mander Centre for snotty kids (like me) to clamber all over when Dad had popped into Tesco.

Where I live now people still reminisce about two fiberglass sea lions that used to be located in the town square outside the run down Gateway supermarket. 

Dudley used to have tropical lizards in vivariums in the shopping centre; as exotic as it got in the Black Country, apart from Cuddles the killer whale in Dudley Zoo. 

 

There's probably still Kimodo dragons in Tipton though, it's not known as The Lost City for no reason. It's definitely not Eldorado or Atlantis.

Walsall's concrete hippo.  The stink that was kicked up when the Council decided to tart up The Bridge and it was threatened.  You'd think they had tried to replace Sister Dora with a statue of a Caldmore horizontal evening leisure consultant.  I must admit I haven't been in the town centre for over two decades so I have no idea if it was kept.

Lichfield Levetts Field shopping centre used to have ponds with goldfish in them, as a kid if we had to wait for the infrequent Green Bus back to Handsacre my parents would take us there to see them.  They seemed to be a permanent fixture of the shopping centre and then they were gone, and boring planting was in their place.  I assume they were too much trouble to keep.

Forgot to add, the 1960s habit of plonking art in odd places became known as sticking "turds in the plaza" by urban designers in later years.