Murals

Ray Howard-Jones – An Eye for the People, Cardiff

Listing: Unlisted
Condition: Destroyed
Material Type: Mosaic
Building Type: Commercial / Industrial
Artist / Designer: Ray Howard-Jones
Owners: Unknown
Date: 1959
Address: Western Mail's Former Office's, Thomson House, Havelock Street, Cardiff CF10 1EP
Local Authority: City of Cardiff Council
County: South Glamorgan
Country: Wales

Ray Howard-Jones won a national competition held by the Western Mail in 1958 to embellish their new office building in Cardiff. Chiefly known as an impressionist neo-romantic landscape painter, she came up with a 10m high mosaic mural full of vibrant colours and imaginative patterns. Made and papered in Italy before being transferred to Wales, the mosaic represented a giant eye and evoked the role of the local newspaper in the region. For nearly 50 years the artwork, considered as one of the finest post-war mosaics in Britain adorned the building, until it was wantonly destroyed in 2008.  The society was too late to save it and its destruction is a tragic loss for the city. The only remaining mosaic from Ray Howard Jones is a strikingly designed altarpiece from 1955, surviving in Marchmont St. Giles’ Parish Church, Kilgraston Road, Edinburgh EH9 2DW.