Martin Donlin’s stained glass canopy can be found on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough – just outside Boots chemist. Installed in 1997, the piece is made from enamelled, toughened glass suspended by steel posts and cables. It features a town plan from the 1940s, intertwined with nods to the town’s industrial past and even a little mythology. I spoke to Tony Duggan – former Development Manager at Middlesbrough Council – to get much of the following information.
In the mid-90s a decision was taken by the Town Centre Management Company to redesign elements of the town centre, specifically along the town end of Linthorpe Road. This project was named Arcadia. Older sculptures – such as Graham Ibbeson’s Gardener Tending His Flowers and Shopper & Child, and Glynn Williams’ Mother With Child and Seated Girl – were removed and landscape architecture firm Gillespies were commissioned to rework the area.
The rework had some issues – blue glazed blocks set in the ground were later found to be a slip hazard and had to be resurfaced – but it allowed three new pieces of public art to be installed (we’ll get to the others later).
Martin Donlin had previously worked with Northern Arts, and it’s likely through this connection that he was put in the frame to create this piece. He took as its centrepiece a map of Middlesbrough centre (where the Cleveland Centre now stands), and included motifs of steelworking and shipbuilding. Also included was the image of Vulcan: the Roman god of fire, metalworking and the forge – all central parts of Middlesbrough mythbuilding – with a deep red colour emphasizing these themes.
The canopy has been damaged twice, once when someone threw a TV off the Cleveland Centre and the panels were remade by the artist. More recently Storm Babet’s passage through the town broke a large section of the glass. Hopefully it can be repaired again.
Thank you to Tony Duggan for his invaluable knowledge and input (as usual).
North East Statues 