In addition to our nightly food-support operation and recirculating second-hand goods, we at Save The World Club have also created a number of mosaics across Kingston over the years. If you live in the borough and have noticed a mosaic on your travels, there's a good chance it was made by us.
It all started more than 20 years ago, when we were asked to take over a children's summer playscheme at the Cambridge Estate. At the time we were running a "scrap club" - a project with kids to make models out of waste materials, and two of the team who had made mosaics suggested we create them on the estate with the youngsters.
The first public one we created was under Kingston train station railway bridge and since then we have been responsible for making many others across the local area. Other locations include: Canbury Passage, The Rose Theatre, the John Lewis building and Malden Manor on the Hogsmill trail.
The mosaics have a different theme depending on the location: the one at the station depicts people in a train and London landmarks, including the London Eye and Houses of Parliament; at the Rose Theatre, there is an image of a tumbling man - a homage to the forefather of cinema Edweard Muybridge; and the mosaic at Canbury Passage - at the time of creation the longest mosaic in Europe - is based on the work of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who is known for his bright colours and organic forms.
The works not only look great, they also serve as a way to prevent graffiti in the location - in fact the mosaic we made in Malden Manor back in 2018 was as a result of the local police asking us to create one because the area was a graffiti hotspot.
Our current mosaic artist is Kim Porrelli - she first got involved with Save The World Club in 2002 as a volunteer, helping to create the work at Canbury Passage. She loved it so much that she quit her job, retrained, and turned it into her career!
As you would expect, all the mosaics are created by fitting lots of little pieces together. However, Kim uses a variety of different materials and techniques for each work, and as they are made with the help of volunteers it is key to produce something that looks good without
being too difficult to make.
Each one takes some time to produce, so a certain amount of patience is needed, but once they've been made they last for years and years, so they will be enjoyed by generations to come.
Next time you're out and about in the locality and you pass one of the mosaics we have created, why not take a moment to enjoy the work, appreciate the effort that has gone into making it and think of Save The World Club - the more people we have supporting our fantastic charity the more we can do to help those in need across the borough of Kingston and beyond!
To discover the locations of all our mosaics, click here:
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