Public art: Madeleine Carroll Memorial

Team: Civic Engineers / Sutton Vane Associates, lighting design / Simon Fenton Partnership, quantity surveyor

Client: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Year: 2006-7

Location: New Street in West Bromwich outside of what was The Public (now Central St Michael's Sixth Form College).

The first phase of Town Square included public commemoration of Madeleine Carroll, star of Hitchcock’s ‘The 39 Steps’, a native of West Bromwich who went on to have an international career as an actor and then gained worldwide respect as a humanitarian. The memorial consists of two massive pieces of polished black and white granite, fixed together around a 50mm thickness stainless steel ‘lollipop stick’ support. The inscriptions are engraved into patinated bronze panels. The portrait consists of 1.5mm thickness stainless steel sheet, laser cut and fixed to the smooth granite surface with cellulose adhesive. The image was derived from a photograph, reduced from greys to black and white and painstakingly adapted to make a viable CAD cutting pattern. The memorial answered a local need for commemoration of a local person. However, the contemporary design and level of craftsmanship greatly enhance its appeal.

Madeleine Carroll memorial West Bromwich (April 2011). Photography by Elliott Brown

Madeleine Carroll memorial West Bromwich (July 2017). Photography by Elliott Brown