Civic Carpet - Ilford Forever

Civic Carpet - Ilford Forever

Redbridge Council
_2022-2023

Civic Carpet – Ilford Forever is a permanent granite artwork embedded in the civic heart of Ilford town centre, in the London Borough of Redbridge. Commissioned by Redbridge Council, the project began in 2021 and was completed in 2023 with the installation of its second piece, You Are Here. The work explores how a town’s identity can be expressed through pattern, material and collective memory.

Developed during the pandemic, the project unfolded through a series of online workshops with young people from Ilford. Conducted over Zoom and Google Jamboard, these sessions became spaces for reflection and shared imagination at a time of distance and uncertainty. Rather than producing direct designs for the final piece, participants were invited to exchange ideas, stories and drawings that spoke to their sense of place.

Each workshop explored a theme, Affirmations, Home, Garden, and Tapestry for the Community. Together, these strands traced a path from the domestic to the civic, asking how the textures of everyday life might extend into the public realm. Conversations touched on household motifs like carpets and wallpaper, the history of garden design, and artists such as William Morris whose work connected ornament to social purpose. Participants also uncovered local histories, including the story of Cranbrook Castle, a once-prominent landmark in Ilford now largely forgotten.

The final design integrates affirmations from the workshops with references to pattern-making, public carpets and local heritage. Motifs drawn from Cranbrook Castle appear throughout, reintroducing a fragment of Ilford’s past into the present-day town centre.

Carved from granite, the Civic Carpet translates the warmth of domestic materials into a durable urban surface, a meeting point that honours shared history and lived experience. It stands as both a marker and an invitation: to gather, to pause, and to recognise Ilford as a place continually shaped by its people.

_{Client: Redbridge Council

Photography: Abdul Muktadir

Stone supplier: BBS Natural Stone Specialists
Fabricator: Scribble Stone}