A distinctive Portrait Bench featuring three famous local characters has been installed in Becket’s Park a short distant away from 78 Derngate, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh House, in Northampton.
The bench features the figures of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, John Clare and W J Bassett-Lowke. They were selected by public vote from a shortlist of six drawn up after local nominations.
Engineer and councillor, W J Bassett-Lowke, who founded a very successful model engineering company, the Northampton Repertory Theatre and Northampton Rotary Club, received the greatest number of votes. He also commissioned the famous designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh to remodel his house, the now restored 78 Derngate, in 1916/17 showing off striking interiors in Mackintosh’s iconic modernist style. It is a significant house as it was Mackintosh’s last major commission and the only house he designed in England.
Nineteenth Century poet John Clare grew up in the Northamptonshire village of Helston and is best known for his verses on rural England. John Clare’s Cottage has also recently been restored and opened to the public.
The Portrait Bench sits alongside the sustainable transport charity Sustrans’ Connect2 cycle route and is one of 80 similar benches located across the country. The artwork, funded by the Big Lottery Fund is made of naturally weathering steel and features a plaque with a short biography of each of the characters.
Aggie and the Peddle On UK Crew at 78 Derngate’s Portrait Bench Opening
The bench was officially unveiled by Sustrans and members of the local cycling community supported by Aggie MacKenzie from Channel 4’s programme How Clean is Your House.
Find out more about 78 Derngate at www.78derngate.org.uk, follow them on twitter @78Derngate or Like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/78derngate
