Erection date: 1989
This figure may be intended to represent Shelley himself.
Site: Percy Shelley - W1 (3 memorials)
W1, Poland Street, 15
The English Heritage plaque is on this corner building, in Poland Street. The apparent blue plaque just below the mural, is painted to mimic a blue plaque.
In the mural we have interrupted a black-haired young man (woman?) who had been reading a book while sitting/standing (in a very odd pose) in front of a green field with trees in the background. In the foreground is a solitary tree that has been blasted in two. To the right the branches of another tree can be seen, the tree itself being outside the frame. The foreground trees are shedding their leaves as if it were autumn but the background trees are still in green leaf. We ourselves are just inside an arcade, the arches of which can be see at the top of the mural.
The wild, dark hair suggests the figure with the book may represent Shelley himself.
Sadly, the mural has suffered some damp damage, creating a vertical grey line towards the right-hand edge.
explains that the Ode explores the death and decay that the autumn winds usher in and suggests that the subject of this 1989 mural may have been prompted by the Great Storm of 1987.
Credit for this entry to: Bob Baker
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them