Mural at Headington Community Centre (2022)
This mural inside Headington Community Centre in Gladstone Road was painted by Mani Manson and Merlin Porter with help from the local community. It was revealed to the public at an Open Day on Sunday 27 November 2022 (above).
The mural covers a whole wall, stretching from floor to ceiling, and is full of buildings and people with a Headington connection under a banner reading “Welcome to Headington Community Centre”. It is best viewed in smaller chunks:
Aslan the lion prowls around the graves in Holy Trinity churchyard, while C. S. Lewis sits under a tree smoking his
pipe and reading
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The owl in the tree is probably Glimfeather
At the foot of the above tree there is a book by Brian Aldiss who lived in St Andrew's Road, and the copy of
Aristotle's works that John Copcot of The Queen's College is said to have rammed down the
throat of a wild boar on Shotover, resulting in the boar's head feast held at the college each Christmas.
There are also two open books,
one about the Shotover Giant
and the other entitled “The Story of Old Headington”
On the left is part of the Children's Hospital on the John Radcliffe site; in the middle is the former Moulin Rouge
Cinema in New High Street, with its owner, Bill Heine, coming of of the door; and on the right is Bury Knowle Library,
with City and County Councillor Roz Smith waving out of the window. John Henry Brookes is cycling off to the left,
and next to him is Olive Gibbs, in 1976 the first person to be awarded an honorary degree by Oxford Polytechnic,
wearing her Lord Mayor's chain and carrying a hammer in order to knock down the Cutteslowe Walls.
The dragon Smaug at the top represents J. R. R. Tolkien, who lived in Sandfield Road
The two artists who painted the mural stand in front of a scene showing
the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers and one of Old Headington's
lampposts
There are many other scenes to look out for, including the Headington Shark, St Andrew's Church, the windmill of Windmill Road, the Headington United of 1893 in the colours of Oxford United, symbols of the pubs of Headington, a gipsy wagon, and NHS workers.
Film showing the making of the Headington Community Mural
