How giant Bradford mural was finally restored after years hidden away

The ceramic artwork was created by Greta Marks in the 1960s for a city centre office. Greta’s daughter, Frances, feared the mosaic was destroyed when the building was demolished. But after publishing her letter, the T&A reported that the artwork had been located: ‘The glazed mural used to hang in Central House in Forster Square, which was pulled down to make way for the Broadway Development. Bradford Community Trust gave Frances the good news that it is still on show, in the reception of its City House office.

“Mrs Marks said she was thrilled: ‘My mother only made two mosaics for public buildings, both in Bradford. It’s great to hear that one of her murals again graces one of the city’s historic buildings’.”

The 8ft mural, depicting the canal basin at Forster Square in the 1890s, is based on a watercolour by Bradford artist Neil Stuart Crichton. Greta - a Jewish refugee who was the second female student at the famous Bauhaus school of art - was commissioned by Bradford Corporation to create the mural. After the demolition of Central House in 2004 the artwork was moved to the Cheapside offices of Bradford Community Trust, later housing provider Incommunities. It ended up behind a wall, where it remained for 10 years. Now the mural has been lovingly restored and, as the T&A recently reported, has a new home at Salts Mill, in a frame designed by Bradford firm Iron Octopus.

Fiona with the mural in its new home at Salts Mill (Image: Mike Simmonds)

When the Silver family, owners of Salts Mill, learned about the mural they contacted esteemed ceramics restorer Fiona Hutchinson. The mosaic was brought to Salts Mill, where Fiona set about bringing it back to life. Fiona has been restoring works of art for more than 40 years and has a workshop on the Welbeck Estate near Worksop. More used to working on items the size of a teacup, she worked on Greta’s mural for two years, in an old mill shed.

“When Maggie Silver approached me in 2022 I was out of my comfort zone, as I usually work in my workshop. Salts Mill were phenomenal in creating a workshop for me here,” says Fiona. “It has been an absolute pleasure. The more I did the more I came to appreciate the huge amount of work, physical and mental, that Greta Marks put into its creation.

“It was removed with an angle-grinder, a lot of the pieces had come off. Some bigger tiles at the bottom were broken and there were cracks running through sections. It was covered in years of dust. I was handed a cardboard box full of pieces. I cleaned them and put them back on, and made some new ones to fit. It was problem-solving - trying to work out what went where. It was like a giant jigsaw.”

Gradually, Fiona pieced the mural back together. “It was fantastic watching it come to life,” she says. “People appeared that I didn’t even know were there. I felt protective of it, and felt I got to know Greta along the way. She put numbers on the back of each piece, marked in clay, and you can see her fingerprints in the roof tiles.”

Fiona, who works with the National Trust and York Museum, says this has been her biggest project: “It has been an honour to restore this extraordinary artwork. I’m delighted to see it on display; it is positioned so that people can see it walking through the gallery, as well as entering the building.”

How the mural looked before it was restored (Image: Salts Mill)

The mural depicts an area of the city now completely changed. The ceramic pieces create intricate detail, including the brickwork, window panes and roof tiles of canal buildings, birds in the sky, colours of the water and the cathedral clock tower rising behind. Four children huddled in a barge were an additional touch by Greta, says Graham Kemp at Salts Mill, who researched her work and the painting her mural is based on.

Children in the canal boat - an additional touch by Greta (Image: Mike Simmonds)

The watercolour, dated August 28, 1892, is one of two Crichton paintings of the same view, both in Cartwright Hall gallery.

Barkerend-born Crichton specialised in painting architecture; his art shows Bradford’s canal wharfs and warehouses when the city was wool capital of the world. The Bradford Canal terminated near the cathedral. Today it’s where Bolton Road and Canal Road meet, near the Broadway shopping centre. Says Graham: “Between 1870-1880s Bradford Corporation commissioned Crichton to paint some of the town’s buildings. In the 1960s, when Bradford underwent a huge demolition and re-development programme, Greta was commissioned to produce a ceramic mural of his canal painting for the council’s Forster Square building - part of the new development.”

Greta was born in Cologne to a wealthy Jewish family. She studied at Bauhaus in 1920 and, with her husband, founded a ceramics business near Berlin. Her designs were exported to America and the UK, including London’s Liberty store, but her work was branded “degenerate” by the Nazis, who forced her to sell her factory. Greta fled to England in 1936 with her children and lived in Stoke-on-Trent, teaching art and setting up a business. After the war she exhibited ceramics, mosaics and paintings and produced silverware. She died in 1990. Her work is in national collections, including the British Museum and the V&A.

“Greta’s mural is a beautiful work of art. Each time you look at it, you see something different,” says Graham. “She did two Bradford murals, based on Crichton paintings. We’ve no idea where the other one is. It could be leant against a wall in a warehouse somewhere.”

The mural was discovered by Incommunities staff when the building was vacated. “Someone remembered it and it was moved to our warehouse,” said Paul Egan, Head of Business Support in Property Services. “We’re delighted it has a home at Salts Mill.”