The Chartist Mural was a mosaic mural designed by Kenneth Budd and created in 1978 in a pedestrian underpass in Newport, South Wales. It commemorated the Newport Rising of 1839, in which an estimated 22 demonstrators were killed by troops. It was 115 feet (35 m) long and 13 feet (4.0 m) high. The mural was controversially destroyed in 2013 despite some public opposition and protests, before adjacent buildings were demolished to make way for the Friars Walk redevelopment.
The mural comprised 200,000 pieces of tile and glass. It was designed by Kenneth Budd and erected in 1978 at an entrance to John Frost Square, which had itself been created through redevelopment and named in the 1960s. The mural celebrated the Chartist uprising of 1839, when John Frost led a march of thousands of protestors to the Westgate Hotel which was fired on by troops; some 22 demonstrators were killed.
Budd researched the Chartist rebellion for four months in consultation with experts at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery. He then created the mural in hundreds of square panels in Kent which were later assembled on site. The mural showed:
- the march of the armed Chartist insurrectionists towards Newport
- the Chartists’ marching banners for the democratic demands of the Six Points of the People’s Charter
- their convergence on the Westgate Hotel to protest their demands
- the final tragedy when soldiers opened fire upon the assembled Chartists.
In 2007, an introductory panel was removed, and it was proposed that the whole mural would be demolished as part of a city centre redevelopment scheme. Proposals to demolish it were restated in 2012. Alternative proposals were made that it could be recreated on ceramic tiles and displayed at Newport Central Library, or that Kenneth Budd’s son Oliver could recreate a section of the mural elsewhere. Newport City Council stated that the original would be impossible to preserve and too expensive to reconstruct.
In May 2013, the 20th Century Society asked Cadw to list the mural as of “architectural and historical interest “,but Cadw declined to do so, stating that “The quality of the building to which the mosaic is attached is poor and the underpass itself has no intrinsic design merits. It was also felt that there was no specific association between the location of the mural and the Chartist uprising.” Petitions and online campaigns were made in opposition to the planned destruction of the mural, and a protest demonstration was arranged. The council stated that it had to take immediate action because of concerns over safety ahead of the demolition of the adjoining building. Contractors demolished the mural on 3 October 2013. The planned public demonstration took place on 5 October, attended by 200 people.
BethanChelsey Design 