a day ago
Battle is on to save hidden school masterpiece
This week Salford council launched a public consultation on what buildings and heritage assets should be recognised for their historical importance. One beautiful, but hidden gem, some say, should be top of the list.
But it is in a building which wrecking crews are due to start demolishing on Monday. (June 30th). It is a mural by Hungarian artist, George Mayer-Marton, who emigrated to England to save his work from the Nazis.
The fresco, from 1954, The Five Joyful Mysteries of the Virgin's Rosary, filled a whole wall at the St Ambrose Barlow RC School in Swinton. The school has been shut for 14 years and is to be bulldozed so the site can be used for affordable housing.
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The building, in Shaftesbury Road, is now owned by Salford City Council as the school relocated to a brand new site in Wardley. There is, however, hope of finding an eleventh hour solution to save the mural.
The artist's great nephew, Nick Braithwaite has applied for it to be listed. But in the 1990s the work was inexplicably plastered over, and it has been forgotten, out of sight. It would take a huge amount of money to remove the coverings and retrieve and preserve the mural.
A Salford City Council spokesperson said: 'The former St Ambrose Barlow RC High school in Swinton has been closed for 14 years and we have external funding for it to be demolished so it can be used as a new site for housing. Very recently it has come to light that there was a historical fresco within the school which has been concealed for many years, although its current condition beneath the paint is unknown.
'The council has been in discussions with interested members of the community about how we may protect the wall during demolition to understand if the mural can be retrieved in the future.' The mural was covered prior to the council taking over responsibility of the site.
Ben Davis, current head of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School, said: "This has only come about because we are celebrating our 70th anniversary as a school this year. In doing that we have gone through loads of old documents and came across old photographs, of which there are hardly any of the interior of the old building.
"We came across a photograph of the foyer of the school, which showed the mural. I said to people 'what is that' it is huge. I started asking what had happened to it. I gradually pieced together that it looked like it had been covered up in the mid 1990s.
"I thought maybe, if it has been covered up, it can be rescued. But it is not that simple. I contacted the council who have been very good about this. To be fair to them there is no reason why this would come up in due diligence of the building - because it has been out of sight for the best part of 30 years and is not in anyone's memory.
"The council has put the building up for demolition, but when I got in touch with them, they said they would look into it. It can't be a priority for our school because it is not our building.
"I did contact Save Britain's Heritage, who also contacted the council, and were in discussion with them. SAVE got back to me and said the mural was unfortunately covered in layers of emulsion and plaster and thought the mural was likely unrecoverable.
"I thought the trail had gone dead then. But a former pupil and a former member of staff got involved and I believe between them , SAVE, and the council things are ongoing.
"They did get an expert to look at it and they said it would take a year and it would be incredibly complex because it is so big, and the wall it is on supports so much of the building. But I don't think the game is up yet. There is a glimmer of hope.
"I wish there had been a way to save it years ago. The bottom line is it should never have been covered up. In a time when people are portraying refugees negatively the artist who created this was a refugee who came to our country, and gave us this mural, which is to be celebrated. I would love nothing more than to have it displayed in our school. We are creating a display to mark the 70th anniversary of our school and George Mayer-Marton will be a part of it."
Nick Braithwaite who made the listing application on Thursday said he believed demolition was scheduled to start on Tuesday next week. He said: 'It is a great shame that, for the third time, custodians of these extraordinary murals have failed to appreciate their value. I felt I had to apply for listing as the only way to save this unique fresco by my great-uncle George Mayer-Marton."
Councillor John Warmisham, who sits as an Independent Socialist on Salford Council, and is a practising Catholic, said: "'I find it appalling that this mural could be lost. The council and the diocese should be working together to save this important piece of art. We're losing too many great pieces of historical art like this. Surely the developers can come to some sort of agreement to save this for the Catholic community in Salford diocese."
Four years ago the Manchester Evening News reported on how another of Mayer-Marton's murals in The Holy Rosary Church in Oldham of The Crucifixion was under threat.
Like other central European artists fleeing persecution from the Nazis in the 1930s, he found that one institution which provided refuge - and work - was the then resurgent Catholic Church
He did extensive work for the church in the north west during the 1950s as new churches were being built.
These included two remarkable mosaics in Manchester and Oldham. They are the only ecclesiastical murals by Mayer-Marton that survive in situ.
One, above the high altars inside St Clare's RC Church on Victoria Avenue, Blackley, depicts St Clare of Assisi raising the Blessed Sacrament.
But there are fears The Crucifixion in Oldham could be lost as the church has now been closed since 2017. But it currently remains in situ as potential uses for the building are explored.
In a tragic twist of fate during a night raid by the Luftwaffe on September 11 1940, an incendiary bomb struck George's home in London destroying his studio and its contents.
Yet from that despair he not only survived, but rose again to produce what one critic described as "some of the most elegant incisive graphics in existence'. They include a 1955 mosaic, in Oldham, described by Tristan Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as a work of "dazzling beauty".
With its message of hope, renewal, and triumph over darkness, it dominates the interior of the abandoned Holy Rosary in Fitton Hill, Oldham.
Another of George's works, The Pentecost mosaic in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was moved there just in time before its original host church, in Netherton, was demolished.
Salford City Council is inviting residents to nominate the buildings, landmarks, and landscapes they believe should be recognised for their local historic or architectural importance.
The council is carrying out a full review of Salford's List of Local Heritage Assets, also known as the Local List, and is asking the public to help identify potential sites to include. The last full review of Salford's Local List was completed in 2013.
