Coppermill Lane has had a number of sculptures along it for several years, some the result of collaboration between Bill Hudson and Andrea Sinclair, working with Art in the Park, the Elmtree Woodcraft Folk, the Asian Family group and Bancroft and Coppermill Primary Schools. The bronze installations were themed around the Coppermill, the marshes, reservoirs, River Lea and the birds and wildlife which people can enjoy if they take a stroll from the residential part of Walthamstow over the bridge, past the geese and the waterworks, under the railway bridge, down to the marina and on over the river to Springfield Park over in Hackney. For those who like public transport, this stroll can be started where the W12 bus finishes. For those who like pubs, it can start or finish at the Coppermill pub.
The sculptures are not particularly brilliant, being the work of a committee, but they are familiar, and I do like the depiction of the Coppermill about half-way along the part of the walk accessible by vehicles (drivers will have to get out at the carpark where the road meets the railway and the marshes begin). I measure my progress as I jog by passing them.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to just measure their plinths in the case of two of them, as it seems that some pikey artlover or scrap metal merchant has stolen a couple of them recently. I wonder if they will ever be recovered.
Other artwork which has not been stolen are the two portals at the first bridge, the one over the massive culvert that protects us all from flooding, helping carry storm water away and ensuring the drinking water in the reservoirs is not contaminated. One day I hope Thames Water will see sense and allow a bicycle path to go along its access road on the bank on the side of the sports centre, linking with Forest Road.