Design for a mural on Mortimer Street wall revealed

A design for a three-storey high mural on Mortimer Street has been unveiled in a planning application submitted this month by The Langham Estate which is paying for the artwork and leading the project.

Oliwia Bober, a London-based Polish artist, was selected in June after an open competition was held earlier this year inviting artists to give a makeover to a blank wall in Fitzrovia West.

Bober’s winning artwork depicts women’s bodies as Rubenesque characters shaping and sewing fabric while reaching through Gothic windows, in a pastel-coloured vertical frieze.

“The central scene of the mural represents contemporary Fitzrovia through the image of a convivial interaction between two figures set within an architectural frame that is an amalgam of the area’s historic features,” states Langham in its application to Westminster Council.

“This scene is framed by a decorative border which depicts figures engaged in the tasks of threading, sewing and weaving, alluding to the history of the garment trade in the area. The past and the present will be literally woven together into a layered image which represents the overlapping histories of Fitzrovia into one social fabric, encapsulating the idea that Fitzrovia is both on the fringe and central to the city of London.”

The mural also includes the “Fitzrovia Quarter” corporate branding of Langham, which is a major landowner in Fitzrovia West.

A preview of an early design for the mural was shown at a workshop in June where local people and those with a connection to area were invited to comment on the developing artwork.

Bober studied art at the University of Brighton and in 2019 garnered attention when she painted vulvas on toilet doors in venues across London as part of a campaign by a women’s hygiene brand.

Critical of the porn and beauty industry, Bober says that women’s bodies are presented to society “to be picked apart” and “deemed unpalatable unless they appear to meet idealised standards”, resulting in “an endless cycle of shame and embarrassment”.

Instead, Bober wants to show women in all their beautiful variety.

“The best we can hope for is that the messages we’ve been told can be unlearned so that the next generation grows up with a more positive and open attitude,” she said in 2019.

The proposed artwork on an east facing wall near the junction with Great Titchfield Street has a working title of “Collective Effort” and is scheduled to be painted and unveiled this autumn, assuming it is granted planning permission.

Once installed it will have a small “interpretation plaque” fitted to a neighbouring building. The mural is intended to be in place for a minimum of two years and for up to 10 to 15 years, pending a review by Langham.

Westminster Council, planning application: 25/05691/FULL, Installation of public art on the flank wall of number 67 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7SE.

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