Our spherical sculptures correspondent Angus Young talks council plans, litter and balls. (As usual.)
Big changes are about to happen on Freetown Way in Hull city centre. Subject to a contractor being appointed, work to restore two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction along the dual carriageway is scheduled to start before the end of the year. In addition, footways will be widened on either side to accommodate separate off-road cycle routes. When all of this happens I hope an often overlooked feature of the original road scheme is retained.
The proposed route of the new dual carriageway was first mapped out in the 1970s, slicing through a mainly residential area. Until it opened to traffic in 1986, it was known as the North Orbital Road. It formed part of a larger orbital route circling the city centre which also included the new South Orbital Road (later to become simply known as Castle Street) and Great Union Street.
The South Orbital Trading Park and the Orbital Garage in Raven Street are reminders of those sphere-shaped days of transport planning in the city even though, on paper, the orbital route actually looks more like a rectangular box.
Eventually, like its southern namesake, the North Orbital Road became known as something else when it was named after Hull’s twin town in Sierra Leone. To cement this link, Sierra Leone’s High Commissioner Victor Sumner performed the official opening ceremony alongside Hull’s Lord Mayor Alf Bowd. However, the icing on the circular cake was yet to come.
When Welton-based artist Jacqueline Steiger was commissioned to create a new artwork to commemorate the opening of the new dual carriageway she naturally went with the flow. Simply known as Orb, her giant sculptured bronze sphere sits on a rising mound of concrete covered in cream-coloured tiles. Standing next to the junction with Percy Street, it reminds me of the spaceship appearing dramatically above the mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Steiger herself describes it as “a huge, eye-level punctuation mark which takes your eye away from its surroundings”.
Her design was intended to allow people to both see into the globe and through it. What she probably didn’t anticipate was this also provides the perfect opportunity for passers-by to dump their rubbish in it. On my most recent visit, I spotted a pile of discarded cans, plastic bottles and a fast food box nestling within its base.
Despite the litter, Orb is still an impressive piece of work and I just hope it survives the looming makeover. A few replacement tiles to fill the gaps left by nearby missing ones certainly wouldn’t go amiss either. Perhaps another sculpture might be commissioned to stand in the middle of one of the other currently empty circular rings of stone tiles which are a feature of the junction
Orb 2, anyone?