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. .

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.

Finsbury Park’s birthday on 7 August 2019 saw the opening by the Mayors of Haringey and Islington of the newly restored McKenzie Gardens, featuring a commemorative 150th anniversary one-off stone plinth.  

Our Journey

The Zimbabwe black granite polished plinth was painstakingly produced at IP Surfaces and has a handcrafted pinpoint sandblasted map of the park on the top face, as well sandblasted text commemorating 150 years of the park on the sides. The park is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. Famous performances in the park have included Jimi Hendrix in 1967, Bob Dylan in 1993, the Sex Pistols in 1996, KISS in 1997, Oasis in 2002, The Stone Roses in 2013 and Queens of the Stone Age in 2018.

The Glade of Light is a memorial commemorating the victims of the 22 May 2017 terrorist attack at Manchester Arena and honours the 22 people whose lives were taken, as well as remembering everyone who was left injured or affected. It was designed to be a living memorial, a tranquil garden space for remembrance and reflection. Its peaceful surroundings are intended as the setting for commemorative events in the city relating to the attack. Winners of a Manchester City Council inspired competition, the memorial, and the garden in which it is located, was designed by Liverpool-based landscape architects BCA Landscape and creative agency Smiling Wolf. Altrincham-based landscape architects Planit-IE wrote the specification for the competition memorial.  

Our Journey

IP Surfaces wanted to take responsibility itself for the construction of the memorial on site, having fashioned the 26 pieces of Carrara marble that formed the two sections of the ‘halo’ at its factory at Logistics North, Bolton. Galliford Try had been chosen as the main contractor and IP Surfaces’ sister company, Hardscape, had been chosen by landscape architect Planit-IE, who wrote the specification for the competition for the memorial, to supply the stone for the garden in the Medieval Quarter. The project team visited eight quarries in Carrara, Tuscany, all pre-Covid timings and conditions, before deciding on the particular marble they wanted, which needed to be technically sound to offer the least amount of movement as well as being aesthetically pleasing. BCA Landscape wanted the marble slabs to be bookmatched (see top right image below the drawings). As Andy Thomson told the Architects Journal: “Bookmatching creates a beautiful effect within the marbled surface that also mimics the bilateral symmetry that we see in nature and is particularly evident in the ephemeral moment of a passing butterfly.” Once the slabs had arrived in the UK at IP Surfaces, the project team came to inspect them and BCA Landscape chose precisely where the cuts would be made for bookmatching. By the time the slabs were being cut, Covid restrictions had begun and the decisions on individual slabs were made using remote digital assets via the internet. Each of the 26 slabs weighed 2.3tonnes and each took a full day to cut to radius and embellish on the CNC at IP Surfaces state-of-the-art facility. Several loads of the marble slabs were transported to site organised by Hardscape’s logistics team and then professionally installed by a Hardscape recommended sub-contractor. In the centre of each of the joining edges of the slabs is a semicircle, which accommodates a ‘memory capsule’, containing personal and appropriate memories of their loved ones. These were capped onsite with bronze lids with marble inlays and central bronze hearts. The caps were both resin-bonded and mechanically fixed into position and sealed by hand by an IP Surfaces skilled stonemason. The names of the deceased are also written in the stone, with the inscription being cut by waterjet into the marble and filled with brass inserts. There are bronze dividers between each of the slabs that, like the memory capsule lids, protrude ‘proud’ of the surface. This is largely to discourage skateboarders from damaging the memorial. The joints were also further complicated by there being a slight fall on the marble surface to stop water pooling on it. The joints had to accommodate the fall; hence they were cut on a waterjet to achieve the compound angle required. The marble was sealed with a Tenax Stoneline 81 product to protect it and make it easier to keep clean. IP Surfaces’ Founding Director, Mathew Haslam, reflected by stating: “It’s a great example of what stone can achieve; how you can manipulate it to achieve a design intention for a particular location, and the awesome energy it can bring to a project. What has been achieved here has received the sort of recognition that is usually reserved for a building. It has all the ingredients of what I stand for and what the team here assists me in achieving on an hour-by-hour basis. I’m very proud of our part we played in this meaningful and iconic project.”

Produced in remembrance respects to the fallen of two World Wars and specifically the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, which was formally unveiled by Her Royal Highness Princess Royal at Our Lady and St Nicholas’ Parish Church, Liverpool in May 2023, IP Surfaces were proud to have supplied and processed the hard landscape materials to this project who also created all the artwork and embellished elements within the scheme. IP Surfaces produced laser engraved Kilkenny Irish Blue Selected Limestone paving in 4-tone etched detailing together with a waterjet-cut wave design and feature medallion with inlaid brass and steel details with surrounding riven Crosland Hill Yorkstone paving, corduroy tactiles and steps together with Kobra granite sawn and flamed paving.