The Sutton Twin towns mural is a large

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

in the form of seven individual paintings situated in

Sutton High Street Sutton High Street is a high street running north–south through the town of Sutton in the London Borough of Sutton. The High Street area constitutes the sixth most important retail centre in London, and is home to many restaurants and major r ...

in the town of

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

in Greater London, England. It is one of six works of

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

in Sutton town centre.

Design and location

The mural was created in 1993 by two

Public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

ists

Gary Drostle Gary Drostle (born 1961) is a British artist specialising in public art, sculpture and mosaic as well as mural painting and drawing. He was also President of the British Association for Modern Mosaic, a lecturer at The Chicago Mosaic School. an ...

and Rob Turner on the 25th anniversary of Sutton's twinning in 1968 with

Wilmersdorf Wilmersdorf (), an inner-city locality of Berlin, lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. History The vi ...

in Berlin. Seven individual paintings make up the mural. It is positioned along the north flank of a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

commercial building at the southern end of the High Street near the train station at the junction with Sutton Court Road. The paintings are on plywood and inset within seven mock window frames. The paintings depict scenes of the

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to ...

and its four European

twin towns A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

Gagny Gagny () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography Location Gagny is located 10 km to the east of Paris. Until the law of 10 July 1964, the commune was part of the departme ...

, a suburb of Paris in France;

Gladsaxe Gladsaxe Kommune is a municipality (Danish, ''Commune (subnational entity), kommune'') near Copenhagen in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...

, a suburb of Copenhagen in Denmark;

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany; and

Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf () is the fourth borough of Berlin, formed in an administrative reform with effect from 1 January 2001, by merging the former boroughs of Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Overview Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf covers the w ...

in Berlin in Germany. (There is also a "friendship link" with Tavarnelle, which is 16 miles south of Florence in Italy.) The twin towns mural was commended by the Sutton and Cheam Society in 1994. Drostle and Turner also produced the Sutton heritage mosaic.

Mural features

The five main paintings show a number of the main features of their respective areas, along with the

heraldic shield In heraldry, an escutcheon () is a shield that forms the main or focal element in an achievement of arms. The word can be used in two related senses. In the first sense, an escutcheon is the shield upon which a coat of arms is displayed. In the s ...

of each above the other images. Each painting also features a plant as a visual representation of its subject's

environmental awareness Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

. In the case of Sutton this is in a separate smaller painting (above its main one) showing a beech tree, intended as a symbol of prosperity and from which

Carshalton Beeches Carshalton () is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated south-southwest of Charing Cross, in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalton ...

in the borough derives its name. The artists involved pupils from Sutton schools and community groups in the early designs; each group dealt with a different town. Sutton's mural painting shows a range of its most well known landmarks, including

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to tw ...

Carshalton Carshalton () is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated south-southwest of Charing Cross, in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalton ...

Ponds, Honeywood House and the spire of Trinity Church in Sutton town centre. Gagny's shows the Hôtel De Ville, an ancient manor surrounded by a garden. The mural for Gladsaxe shows Bagsværd Lake, Bagsværd Church and Højgârd. Minden's mural features its cathedral, the Westerorbrücke bridge and the Mittelandkanal Aqueduct.

2011 information board

The Sutton Council determined to erect "a new information board... to tell people the story of the murals." In 2011 it was installed by the local council in the street facing the mural outside the Cock and Bull pub. Councillor Graham Tope, explained the purpose of the new sign:

Engagement with twin towns

In November 2015 the Mayor of Sutton sent condolences to its twin town Gagny, Paris following the terrorist attacks on Paris that month. In September 2016 French folk dance group L’Aubade de Quercy from Gagny joined their UK counterparts, Pennyroyal Clog Dancers and the East Surrey Morris Men, in Trinity Square, Sutton town centre.Sutton Guardian, 25 Sep 2016
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References

External links