Mosaic mural at former department store of Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, Ipswich, Suffolk

Summary

Mosaic mural at the former department store of the Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, designed by Gyula Bajó and Endre Hevezi and installed between 1963 and 1964.

Description

Mosaic mural at the former department store of the Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, designed by Gyula Bajó and Endre Hevezi and installed between 1963 and 1964.

MATERIALS: The mural is composed of thousands of coloured mosaic tiles.

PLAN: It is attached to the south elevation of the former department store over Cox Lane.

DESCRIPTION: The mural is rectangular, measures approximately 3m in height and 6m in width, and is composed of thousands of square coloured mosaic tiles (tesserae). The design is semi-abstract, with contrasting shapes and colours depicting a male and a female figure, while graded colours provide depth. The female figure kneels to left of centre and holds an abundant wheatsheaf, most likely depicting Demeter, Greek goddess of the harvest and agriculture. Behind her Hermes lies recumbent, wearing his winged helmet and talaria (winged sandals), and carrying a caduceus (a winged staff intertwined with two snakes copulating). The mural is attached to the south elevation of the former department store of the Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, and supported over Cox Lane by two mosaic-covered rectangular piers.

History

Between 1884 and 1885, Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society (IICS) built a department store at 38-46 Carr Street, on the west side of Cox Lane. Designed by JE Goodey, the building contained an outfitting department on the ground floor, and offices and halls over, the largest hall having a capacity for 800 seated guests (or 1200 standing); the upper floors of the late C19 building were converted to residential apartments in 2021. The IICS wished to expand their retail premises on Carr Street, and in 1908 built a new furnishing and drapery department on the east side of Cox Lane to designs by local architect Harvey Winkworth (1872-1950). To the east of the 1908 building, a new commercial building containing boot and shoe and furnishing departments was added in 1928, with a central arcade and standalone glazed exhibition box. East of the 1928 building, a central grocery and tearoom was built in 1915 with a recessed shopfront. A panoramic view of the Co-operative Society buildings on Carr Street, published in 1928, advertised that an additional building was soon to be added to the east to accommodate chemists’, and ladies’ and gents’ hairdressing departments; this was built around 1930 and later extended around 1960. The 1952 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows arcades receding into the 1928 and about 1930 buildings; the arcade of the 1928 building had been removed and its shopfront replaced by the time of the 1964 OS map. By 1949 the IICS had 50,000 members, and during the 1950s began looking towards its centenary in 1968 with the creation of a modern department store. They proposed to unite the terraced stores along Carr Street by knocking down internal walls, allowing customers to move internally between sales areas and buy everything they needed under one roof. They also proposed a large extension to provide a much-increased sales area; the 1908 building was extended to the rear between 1960 and 1965 with a four-storey extension designed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society Architects’ Department (CWSAD).

On the south elevation of the 1965 extension, over Cox Lane, is a colourful tiled mural by Hungarian-born émigré artists and architects Gyula Bajó (1907-84) and Endre Hevezi (1923-2017). Bajó held his first exhibition in Budapest in 1932 and received a doctorate in art in 1942, after which he sought refuge in England. Hevezi graduated with a degree in architecture from the Technical University of Budapest in 1945, after which he spent some time creating wall paintings and murals in Denmark. Bajó and Hevezi were taken on as labourers for the pottery firm of Booths and Colcloughs in Stoke in 1948, and in their spare time designed what became known as ‘Bajó Ware’, a popular modern tableware with unusual designs based on historical and mythological themes. Both men left the pottery firm around 1953, Hevezi to continue his architectural studies in London, while Bajó joined the Co-operative Wholesale Society Architects’ Department (CWSAD) as an architect in their London office. Bajó contributed tiled murals to a number of CWSAD designs, probably at Guildford (1956, demolished) and Stratford (1959-61, demolished), and certainly at Stevenage (1957-8, listed at Grade II). Only four Co-op murals survive nationally: at Stevenage (1957-8, listed at Grade II), Ipswich (1963-4 by Bajó and Hevezi), Hull (1963 by Alan Boyson, listed at Grade II), and Scunthorpe (1963 by Derek W Brown, not listed). Bajó and Hevezi also collaborated on a glass mosaic mural for the Greek state tourist office on London’s Regent Street, and a series of mosaics and stained glass windows for a monastery at Debre Libanos, Ethiopia, which were exhibited in London’s Festival Hall in April 1965 and a double-page spread in the Illustrated London News. The Ipswich mural, sometimes known as ‘Harvest’, appears to depict the Greek mythological characters of Demeter, goddess of the harvest and agriculture, and the messenger Hermes, who was sent to the underworld to save Demeter’s daughter Persephone from Hades, so that the seasons could be restored and famine prevented on earth. The wheatsheaf is a popular emblem of the Co-operative Movement, as ‘a stalk of corn cannot stand alone, but many stand together’ (Pearson).

Reasons for Listing

The mosaic mural at the former department store of the Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society, designed by Gyula Bajó and Endre Hevezi and installed between 1963 and 1964, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
*     as an accomplished and high-quality work of art, which ornaments the approach from Cox Lane car park to the former Co-operative department stores on Carr Street;
*     as a fine example of the pioneering commissioning of art works by private companies and local authorities for exhibition in the public realm in the post-war era;
*     for its design by Gyula Bajó of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Architects’ Department and Endre Hevezi, both Hungarian-born émigré artists and architects who specialised in architectural ceramics and murals.

Historic interest:
* as one of only four surviving large-scale English Co-op murals of the 1950s and 1960s, the others being located in Stevenage, Hull and Scunthorpe.

Group value:
* for the diverse historical group the mural forms with commercial buildings on Cox Lane and Carr Street, including 18 Carr Street (built in 1888, listed at Grade II).

External Links

Historic England Listing

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