A thoughtful transformation rooted in heritage and horticulture. Hardscape Surfaces is proud to have contributed to the renewal of Fairchild’s Garden – a historic public space along Hackney Road, designed to honour its past while embracing the vibrant spirit of Shoreditch today. Formerly a burial ground, the site is the resting place of Thomas Fairchild, 18th-century horticulturist and author of The City Gardener. His legacy inspired the garden’s redesign, led by Ares Landscape Architects on behalf of Hackney Council.

Our Journey

The design includes widened entrances, flexible open areas, and paths that echo the local landscape and community, with nods to the nearby Columbia Road Flower Market. This project exemplifies how sensitive public realm design can honour the past while serving the present — with durable materials, meaningful detailing, and community purpose at its core. Hardscape supplied high-quality paving stone and steps throughout the space, while Hardscape Surfaces crafted a series of bespoke memorial stones celebrating Fairchild’s life and work. These feature intricately sandblasted, etched imagery and waterjet-cut brass text, using Kilkenny Irish Blue Limestone and European Granite, blending craftsmanship with contemporary interpretation.

The artists were commissioned by West Lancashire District Council to make ‘environmental improvements’ to the streets of Burscough Bridge, West Lancashire. A complete renewal of the public realm through its busy village, which sits astride the A59 between the Leeds to Liverpool canal and Southport to Wigan railway, was undertaken. The brief was to bring back a sense of place to a town which had a culturally rich, as well as economically important, past. Speaking to and researching with the community, the artists explored the folklore of the village, uncovered its many stories, traditions, and shared cultural history. These themes were then incorporated into the scheme, from the 1930s pace egging (a street dance) and the WWII American airfield to the remnants of medieval Burscough Abbey and Martin Mere nature reserve.  

Our Journey

A collective notion of identity is a notoriously complex idea to pin down. Ultimately it is the little things that have meaning and these woven together form a greater picture. The scheme involved the creation of a series of new small interlinked squares and pedestrian routes animated with bespoke furniture, paving, lighting and signage. All the bespoke artwork was manufactured at IP Surfaces. The Fairytale of Burscough Bridge celebrates modern creative life beyond the city; presenting the successful realisation of a contemporary design project within a rural context. It is a bold and adventurous scheme that enriches the sense of identity in the Lancashire village.

Going back in time to 2008 we remember the man behind the light show at Southampton’s medieval city walls as he unveiled a striking new work. Artist Simon Watkinson installed three computer-controlled displays of coloured lights in the pavement at Linden Homes’ French Quarter development. To this day, the work called Cellar Lights, comprises three computer-controlled lightworks. They define the public space and mark the boundary between the modern world above ground and the below ground area that was a rich source of medieval artefacts and information. In daylight hours the work appears as grids of upended bottles set at regular intervals into the granite paving of Brewhouse Lane. This pedestrian walkway runs along the route of a medieval thoroughfare from the Lower High Street to Castle Way. Each bottle is engraved with the names of tenants of the site throughout history, including the children and staff from nearby St John’s Infant School. At night, Cellar Lights comes to life as a changing display of coloured LED lights which step and dance to enliven the space and draw attention to what lies below.  

Our Journey

IP Surfaces were tasked with taking three 2500x1500x150mm slabs of Kobra granite which were finished in-house with a flamed ‘anti-slip’ surface and waterjet-cut circles were created within the slabs to house the coloured roof lights and then back-lit with LED’s. Each slab was set within a stainless-steel tray. An exemplary and early example of work produced when IP Surfaces were based at their manufacturing facility near Stratford-upon-Avon. Simon Watkinson commented at the time of installation: “The colours of the bottles refer to bottle types – wine, medicine, spice – all things that are associated with trade through Southampton. The passage of time is marked by quarter-hourly ‘flourishes’ of colour.” Pat Feighery, managing director of Linden Homes Southern, said at the time: “Simon’s installation does an excellent job in drawing attention to the rich heritage beneath our feet in this part of the city. I am sure it will help to keep the cultural links between past and present alive.” Southampton’s Public Art Strategy aligns quality contemporary art, architecture, and urban design to deliver the highest standards of creativity and innovation in the public realm. In supporting this vision Linden Homes has worked with the City Council’s Public Art Department to commission one of the country’s leading light artists, Simon Watkinson.

Finished Scheme Photography: Rod Varley.

As part of a major makeover, Eberle Street, Liverpool was revamped with a unique paving and lighting scheme that pays homage to the mythical Emerald City of the Wizard of Oz, Yellow Brick Road and Judy Garland. Opened in conjunction with the Liverpool Pride weekend at the end of July 2016 to mark the annual celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Liverpool, the works represented the biggest investment in the city’s LGBT quarter for a decade. The design was a creative collaboration between the Liverpool BID Company, Liverpool City Council, Amey Consulting and award-winning Liverpool-based landscape architects BCA Landscape. The works were carried out by Amey and King Construction.  

Our Journey

The original footway material of tarmac, with concrete kerbing, made way for a levelled street featuring a mix of Hardscape-supplied contemporary paving consisting of high quality Kobra and Crystal Black diamond-shaped granite paving interspersed with Kellen Liscio Giallo and Ambrogio paving incorporating inspirational bespoke elements, all lovingly crafted and produced by IP Surfaces, using Crystalpave re-cycled glass depicting illustrations from the Wizard of Oz including Dorothy’s slippers and Toto the dog! The Eberle Street scheme was part of a larger £1.6 million programme to improve the business area and north-south pedestrian connections between the commercial district and the retail core of Liverpool city centre. The inventive facelift was to celebrate the city’s LGBT tradition and community with designs also inspired by the rich cultural history of bars in the area such as Garlands and Gbar. Eberle Streets’ redesign required an imaginative approach that had the verve and style to celebrate its unique position and elevate it to a prominence it richly deserved and to promote the north-south walking routes between the district and the rest of Liverpool city centre. The redevelopment has also turned the area into a major tourist attraction.

Commissioned by Amey for Liverpool City Council, the stunning centrepiece of the newly completed public realm area on Brunswick Street provides a high-quality landscape setting befitting the Grade II* listed Cunard Building, one of Liverpool’s world famous three Graces. ‘The Voyage’, starting in 1839 and stretching to the present day, recounts some of the defining moments in the epic Cunard story during a period when Liverpool was considered as the gateway to the world. From Nova Scotia to New York and the Mauretania to the Queen Mary; ‘The Voyage’ explores a company who had an immeasurable impact on the city’s culture and its people. Following in-depth research by the team, a refined graphic response was developed that thematically framed the story around 16 ships launched between 1840 and 1947.  

Our Journey

Combinations of stone etchings, bronze illustrations and typography have been designed and incorporated into 50 metres of solid granite seating. From Nova Scotia to New York and the Mauretania to the Queen Mary; the artwork tells the tale of a company who had an immeasurable impact on the city’s culture and its people. The subtle positioning of the benches defines the occasional vehicle drop-off and service access area without the need for a clutter of bollards. The designers wanted to show how creative design can help re-connect a place and its people with its past and provide an inclusive and contemporary vision for our collective future. Although the initial brief was vague, they spotted a rare opportunity to celebrate a unique history and create a landscape befitting the sites importance. The challenge was to create a design that was sympathetic to both the existing buildings, the history of the Cunard Line, but also utilise details and materials that referenced its contemporary context. Hardscape supplied European Montemuro fine grain flamed granite for the benches with bronze inlays and lettering all manufactured at IP Surfaces. Hardscape also supplied the landscaped areas comprising of Kellen Breccia and Liscio Tagenta paving; Lavaro Wit flush edgings and Breccia Tagenta Triangles. ‘The Voyage’ clearly and imaginatively demonstrates how design can help re-connect a place and its people with its past and provide an inclusive and contemporary vision for our collective future.

The 10,884m2 of Promenade Enhancement Works aimed to renew the promenade following a similar design theme to that adopted for the recently completed Phase 1 of the scheme. The design approach was set in the context of ‘One Conwy’ CCBC’s vision for the future of Conwy County Borough Council. These principles are also enshrined in the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Place (VVP) national outcomes for prosperous communities, learning communities, and healthier communities.  

OUR JOURNEY

All the artwork was produced at IP Surfaces using natural stone to address the need for resilience in the harsh coastal environment and in an area of heavy foot fall. The use of various stone types also allowed the design of intricate images in the form of the ‘Postcards from Colwyn Bay’. ‘Health Markers’ were introduced to promote and encourage activity on the promenade in line with CCBC’s corporate plan to help inspire people in Conwy towards a healthier and independent lifestyle using a series of distance markers at 50m intervals in granite with waterjet artwork with imagery and text to promote sports, health and wellbeing. ‘Postcards from Conwy’ – The postcards tell the history of Colwyn Bay in a playful and imaginative way. The imagery and the bilingual text only give a snippet of the extensive research done to produce them. It is intended to inspire visitors and locals alike to go and do their own further research. QR codes placed adjacent to each postcard also provide a route to further information. A wide range of natural stones were chosen to create a palette of colours to produce the images on the postcards. The text portion was produced in Crystal Black and Mist granites as these provided the best contrast to make the text as legible as possible. The health markers (placed at 50m intervals along the Promenade) were created using Crystal Black and Mist granites for clarity and to complement the more detailed appearance of the postcards. ‘The Wave Seat’ – a simple two-tone granite block seating. The strength in the design comes from the combination of radial blocks to form a 27m long irregular curvilinear sculptural seat with shallow alcoves for social interaction. The use of the contrasting Mist granite and Kilkenny Irish Blue limestone lends strongly to the bold but simple visual composition.

Six unique benches made with several specialist processes were installed outside Accrington town hall in 2018. The bespoke designs recount Accrington’s rich and proud history, paying a special tribute to the Accrington Pals, Accrington Stanley FC and the area’s role in the Industrial Revolution. The project brief brought together several collaborators to fulfil the vision of Hyndburn Borough Council and Lancashire County Council. The councils set out with a vision to create a civic space for events that celebrated Accrington’s Town and Market Halls, as well as commemorate the Accrington Pals.  

Our Journey

The updated site features six duckboard benches which were made from horizontal pieces of timber, representing the duckboards on the bottom of a trench. Each of the benches are aligned around six individual granite wall plinths and placed in a band of granite setts running around the edge of the town square. These represent a traditional kerb and an interpretation of the two connected trench lines relating to the battle of the Somme; a touching reference to the Pals and all those who fell in World War One. Each of the six plinths has different pieces of art which allude to a piece of Accrington history. These include a mixture of historic photographs, quotes and logos, which involved laser-etching, sandblasting and waterjet-cut processes, all produced in-house at IP Surfaces. The historic photographs were laser-etched, text for the quotes were stencilled and sandblasted to describe the images. Additionally, waterjet-cutting was used to allow for inlaying bronze, which can be seen in the Accrington Stanley FC logo, as well as the armrests. The feedback from the client has been overwhelming, with the councils particularly impressed with the quality of laser-etched photographs on the side of the benches. The aim was to create a space to further boost economic regeneration in the town centre, and the square will act as a social focal point, which has been deemed successful in neighbouring Lancastrian towns. .

As part of the development project to improve Great Howard Street, a new abutment was constructed to create a visually spectacular design feature for the new gateway to Liverpool, reflecting the city’s rich legacy. The ambitious project presented a major design and engineering challenge with a brief to create 46 pieces of artwork on the existing 6 x 1.8m precast cement bridge panels, on-site.  

Our Journey

Collaboration was key and Hardscape was enlisted to supply the stone/concrete materials and manage the design process, enabling the artwork to be created on-site. This proved to be a real test and IP Surfaces had to go beyond existing technology to explore new ways of working in order to create factory-quality artwork in-situ. BCA Landscape and local design agency Smiling Wolf led on the design of the revitalised bridge façade, with a brief to improve the aesthetics of the existing parapet bridge panels and create a standout feature to reflect the city’s history and heritage. Realised in etched concrete with blasts of bright orange paint, the Waterloo Goods artwork stretches the entire length of Great Howard Street Bridge; creating a striking welcome to the city of Liverpool for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. The artwork takes its name from the Waterloo Goods line, the now defunct train line which ran below the bridge, a once key artery for the city as it carried goods from the thriving docks to the wider country. Giant parrots sit side-by-side with local landmarks such as the Mersey Tunnel ventilation shafts and a 1950’s sugar silo – combining the exotic imports found at the dock with the architecture nearby, creating a unique and reverent homage to the cities dockland culture and spirit. The project was a feat of engineering – previously projects with such a high level of detailed artwork would be carried out in a factory unit and then transported to the site. However, the design work for Great Howard Street Bridge had to be created in a live, weather-dependant, on-site setting. Traditional techniques fell short, pushing the IP Surfaces team to explore new processes and exploring a range of options using its unique and existing capabilities. The result was a ground-breaking on-site, large-scale format media etching and painting process, designed to achieve a multi-surface 3D finish – the culmination of over 140 hours of research, sampling and trials. Working on site also meant that the teams had to minimise disruption to traffic and ensure the work could be carried out safely and securely. To this end, scaffolding was erected on small sections of the bridge, with work carried out on one area at a time. This also helped the teams to contain dust produced as a result of sandblasting the concrete, while providing a controlled environment for the chemical treatments used to cure the artworks. By combining pioneering technology, expert insight and inspiring creative design, this project has raised the bar, moving away from a world of plain and austere concrete abutment designs, the Great Howard Street Bridge scheme was enlivened by BCA Landscape’s artistic approach, made possible thanks to Hardscape’s determined passion and belief which enabled a unique new process to be developed and manufactured at IP Surfaces. As the first of its kind, this now paves the way for other towns and cities to follow suit and provides inspiration for the creation of more outstanding gateway designs across the country. The iconic new Great Howard Street Bridge façade is the first of its kind, both in terms of its design and the delivery technique applied. We don’t think we can overstate the scale and complexity of this project. Up until now, IP Surfaces had focused on manufacturing in factory conditions. This new process meant that we had to manufacture on-site with all the restrictions and complexities that brings.

Public Art Consultants Francis Knight were appointed by Medway Council to work on the Chatham Placemaking Project, a government funded project to help regenerate Chatham. Francis Knight commissioned Lead Artist Christopher Tipping to deliver the permanent public art works for Chatham Town Centre as part of the public realm improvements. Working closely with LDA Design and Project Centre, Chris contributed to the master planning, detailed design phases, materials palette, and embedded art works.  

Our Journey

With a proven track record, having been used for similar public realm projects in the area, Hardscape was brought in to deliver the iconic artwork features for the design from its manufacturing facility, IP Surfaces Ltd. The main aim of the public realm project was to upgrade the route from Chatham Station to the Waterfront. The idea was to keep the area lively, whilst encouraging further use by all generations. Local schoolchildren and people working in local businesses were asked for their comments and input to the scheme. The design team listened to their stories and set about translating the ‘sound’ of their lives in words depicted within a ‘circle of words’ at Military Square. The beauty of the finished scheme is reflected in the detail of the production techniques, with flamed Kobra granite being the predominant choice material. Medway Council had already specified this material for adjacent public realm works in the town, so it was key to ensuring continuity throughout. The Kobra granite was both sandblasted with text and waterjet-cut and inlaid with text in Royal White granite. Additionally, honed Kobra granite was sandblasted with text on the risers at St Johns steps. In Military Square itself, an installation of 400 bespoke radius-cut monolithic blocks of granite were set into a 17m diameter circle, putting a circle of words at the centre of Military Square. 154 of these granite blocks have words, numbers and patterns sandblasted or inset into the surface with just over 400 words in total. The brief sought to create an overwhelming sense of common ownership in the project and the execution certainly proved to do just that.

Darren Nash, the Associate Head for Academic Support & Finance for the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford commissioned the project to animate an existing blank wall at the university. Darren is also a poet and he wanted an artist to interpret one of his poems called Fellowship. The role of the artist was to work with the client to design and implement an ‘art piece’ next to the entrance of the NDM building.  

Our Journey

The artwork set out to take the form of a text based visual art and the brief was defined as not to compete with the existing ‘Origin’ art installation in the nearby square. The Fellowship poem was broken up, repeated and arranged into blocks of words. The words became objects or data, adjustable entities placed within the limits of the space to create new configurations or coded formulas of repetition in research as well as referencing the many layers, which are apparent in the surrounding architecture of the NDM building. Hardscape were brought in for their expertise with artwork in hard surfaces. No one had collaborated with each other before and no other companies were willing to take on the risk of a composite stone/concrete wall without doing a sample test on the actual surface – It was a one-chance situation. IP Surfaces were able to etch/sandblast the 412 letters on to a 5.5m wide x 4.14m high composite stone/concrete wall in-house and install in 6 sections on site at the NDM Research Building. The installation has created a stunning talking point on campus for the students and researchers as well as bringing some texture and interest to an otherwise blank feature wall next to the entrance of the NDM building of the university.