Station Square, Colchester

The newly revamped Station Square Colchester was formally opened last week. The design was inspired by the history of Colchester. Engineering and in particular the Britannia Works played a significant role in the local history. The laser cut out patterns in the fence are taken from blueprint drawings of engines created at the Works. 

The finials on the fence are a reproduction of the most significant engine manufactured in Britannia Works. This 12TPM engine was used in Landing crafts in the second world war.

The poem is by Martin Newell and is made from cast iron like an arced railway track leading from the platform to the street.

Many thanks to Colchester Borough Council and in particular Neil Hopkins and Howard Davies, the architect Lindsay White, Martin Newell for his poem and as ever, a massive thanks to Seb Boyesen for making everything.

The full poem:

Ancient Lights

By ruined Roman brickwork

In cold October air

Past Michaelmas, on Beryfield

They held St Dennis Fair

Now damsels dance down Queen St

And meet their modern knights

While trains come into Colchester

Beneath these ancient lights

On early Norman arches

The blue-eyed jackdaws perch

Above those cloistered shadows

Behind the Gothic church

A greensward for their carpet

They gaze down from the heights

For alms the tourists leave them

Beneath these ancient lights

Below St Botolph's Circus

Under the traffic's roar

The souls of nameless soldiers

Go back and forth to war

In court each winter morning

The sun reads out his rights

The prisoner stands there, yawning

And longs for ancient lights

While medieval rooftops

Stare up at steel and glass

The past reminds the future 

To let the present pass

When August flirts with autumn

And starry are the nights

And Colchester lies twinkling

Among the ancient lights