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There
can have been few places more popular with me than the West Bridge
during the "forties" and early "fifties."
As a boy it was for me just a bike ride away along the canal
bank, and what a place, for here canal, railway and roadway all met to
make a place that teemed with life.
The
canal in Leicester was never more interesting than in the mile either
side of West Bridge. As
boys we rode on our bikes along the very edge of the towpath � at
the same time shouting with excitement as the steam locomotives
thundered over the trellis bridges that crossed the water.
What
a dull uninteresting place that spot is now.
All that remains in fact is the West Bridge itself and a
comparison between [the scene now*] and my painting shows clearly that
the railway bridge and shops have totally disappeared leaving
absolutely nothing to fill the sky-line.
Like
Northgates, West Bridge together with other interesting bits of
Leicester�s City Centre has come under the demolition hammer in the
quest for better homes, better roads, better traffic flow, better
shops, better this and better that, but the one thing the planners can�t
better is the character and individuality that was once there.
The face of Leicester as it was - warts and all - was
infinitely more preferable to this artists eye than the anonymity of
the faceless mediocrity that is what we settle for today.
*Note:
As in the case of the Northgates painting, the Artist originally
referred to a photograph of the West Bridge and Grand Union Canal area
depicted in the
painting; once again, although the photo showed the area almost
totally transformed this image is also now somewhat out of date.
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