Displayed on the side of a wall, the Twin Towns Mural is located at the top of Sutton High Street, and is one of the six pieces of artwork displayed in the Sutton Town Centre.
But how much do you know about it?
Made by the same artists who created the Sutton Heritage Mosaic a year prior, Gary Drostle and Rob Turner were commissioned with the task of creating the Twin Town Mural in Sutton High Street to celebrate Sutton’s twinning with other towns in Europe. The piece was made in 1993, on the 25th anniversary of Sutton's twinning in 1968 with Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Germany, accompanied with a visit from the Mayor of Minden.
The Mural depicts images of Sutton’s various twinnings with towns in Europe such as Gagny, a Parisian suburb, Gladsaxe, a suburb in Copenhagen, Denmark, Minden, which is a town in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin, as well as there being a friendship link with Tavarnelle, which is in the Italian region of Tuscany.
Each image includes distinct features of that town, as well as its coat of arms. For example, many of Sutton’s landmarks were included in its specific panel such as Whitehall in Cheam, Carshalton Ponds and the spire of the Trinity Church in the Sutton Town Centre.
The mural for Gagny shows the Hôtel De Ville, which is an old manor surrounded by a garden. Gladsaxe’s depicts Bagsværd Lake, Bagsværd Church and Højgârd and Minden's mural features its cathedral, the Westerorbrücke bridge and the Mittellandkanal Aqueduct
Speaking to Mr Drostle, one of the artists who created the artwork, on what his inspiration was, he said that, “My research before the design looked at the aspects of the various towns searching for a visual link that could connect the towns.”
“Prompted by the discovery that the German town of Minden had a strong connection with the wild rose and the knowledge that Sutton had an historic association with Lavender, I discovered a particular plant that could represent each town.”
In 2011, an information board was erected beneath the mural, to tell people to history of the mural which says, “The Sutton Twin Town Mural was unveiled jointly by the Worshipful the Mayor of the London Borough of Sutton Councillor Frank Sharp and Herr Horst Dohn OBE The Bezirksburgermeister of Berlin-Wilmersdorf on 11 September 1993 to commemorate 25 years of town twinning.”
The Councillor Graham Tope explained the new sign saying, “These murals are an important part of our borough's history and I think it's fitting that people should be able to learn more about them. The Borough's first European ties were established in 1968 ..... twinning continues to be a noteworthy part of the borough's identity.”
Natasha Kalesha-Kangwa, Nonsuch High School For Girls.
