Glasgow pupils transform roundabout into 'magical world'

This is Whiteinch Island and the Thorn Wood, a roundabout and underpass transformed from a dingy, dark and foreboding place into a magical world merging past, present and future as seen by the wildlife that dwells there. 

A large-scale, brightly coloured mural has been created at the flyover for the Thornwood roundabout in the West End by pupils from local schools and artists Lynsey Wells and Jen Olley.

“A big part of this project was to explore the idea that the world looks the way it does because designers made decisions, and we asked the children if someone is making decisions about that, why shouldn’t it be you?” says Jen, smiling.

Lynsey and Jen are artists (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

“It was so much fun working with the children, who were so creative and clever. This roundabout has had safety issues in the past, so it’s also a message to drivers to say – you are now entering a neighbourhood.”

More than 150 young people from Whiteinch and Thornwood Primary Schools took part in a six-month programme of art workshops responding to the Glasgow Green Deal campaign.

Cutting the ribbon (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

The children looked at the environment around them, thinking about how it has changed, who it is for, how it is used and who gets to decide. They also talked about active travel, road safety and local history.

Studying historical maps, they discovered how Glasgow’s neighbourhoods have changed over time  - Whiteinch, for example, was once an island.

Jen adds: “For children as young as five, maps can be a bit of an abstract concept so we looked at it as being like a bird's eye view, and they wondered what birds from the past would have seen and imagined what they wanted future birds to see.”

(Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

The children made hundreds of drawings of plant life, trees, birds and maps – in some, green space reclaimed the roads as they turned them into trees – and Jen and Lynsey then collated all the work at their Dumbarton Road studio.

The group artwork was then scaled up for the large walls and pillars under the expressway flyover at the Thornwood roundabout.

At the recent unveiling, children from the two schools were delighted to share their experiences.

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“Lynsey and Jen worked with our class and we studied pictures of birds, closed our eyes, then drew the birds,” says Thornwood Primary pupil Daisy McDougall, who is in primary five.

“We compared the pictures with our drawings.”

Alex Shi, from primary seven, said: ““We improved our drawing skills by taking part in the fun activities.”

Fellow P7 pupil William Adams said: “It’s nice to see our work displayed in the local community.”

Primary six pupils at Whiteinch Primary were also over the moon to see the mural revealed.

Summer Pollock said: “It was a great experience. It was good to work to improve our local community.”

Julia Plywacz added: “The project was fun and it has made the roundabout look better.”

Dominik Stacho summed up what everyone was thinking. “It was nice that everyone was involved,” he said, “and that we ended up creating something really cool in our area.”

Jen and Lynsey first met studying textiles at Glasgow School of Art and they now run their own studio, In the Making Glasgow, in the West End.

They are artists in residence for Glasgow Life’s Creative Communities project.

“This has been such an amazing project to work on,” said Jen. “What used to be a dark, damp underpass has been turned into something that the children really want to make a difference in their community.

“It was a really strong message and a lot of fun.”