The starting point for my project was nostalgia, my own memories of travelling on trains and buses. I remember that each journey was made special by sitting on the patterned seating material I now know to be called ‘moquette.’
I have spent a dedicated period of research time working on the commission which proved invaluable. Looking at the history of this durable material led me to travel by rail to the London Transport Museum in February for my initial research. Moquette originally woven on jacquard looms, is thermally efficient, insulates against sound, fire resistant, and the patterns can disguise dirt, so it is a perfect material for using on public transport.
At the London Transport Museum, I was able to see a selection of the archived designs, early designs by designers Enid Marx, Marion Dorn and Marianne Straub really caught my eye, the colours and patterns are each unique with design names like Chevron, Shield, Leaf and Straub. On display were designs from the 1990s by designer Pat Barrow, designed for the Victoria and Bakerloo tube lines, they are a striking arrangement of arrows and crosses in dark blue, light blue, red and white.
Travelling to and from the museum by tube I was fortunate to sit on a Barman moquette designed by Wallace Sewell (named after Christopher Barman), which is one of my favourite moquette designs, it depicts landmarks of London and is sometimes called Landmark but the seating on the tube train was so well used and worn it was hardly recognisable to the museum merchandise in the same design.
After the trip, I continued researching different moquette patterns and I began to look at architectural features and details at Middlesbrough Train Station that I could develop into a repeat pattern. Using archive images of the station and many site visits I produced a lot of patterns and at first, I used some of the colourways of well-known moquette designs including Blue Blaze, Barman, and Jubilee to colour my new pattern designs. Needing a bespoke colour palette for my new designs I turned to Mike Drewery (Group Station Manager at Middlesbrough) for advice.
Mike has a wide knowledge of northern railway companies and the colours and railway moquette they have used over the years. He signposted me to look at the wonderful stations at Goathland, Pickering and Grosmont, each painted in different heritage colours. I made a visit to each station in one day, having travelled on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) in the past, I felt a nostalgic connection to these places especially Grosmont station. The vibrant colour palettes at these stations would have been used at Middlesbrough Railway Station in the past and so were relevant to use with my pattern designs.
The hand painted designs have been repeated and reproduced in different scales for the Middlesbrough Moquette commission. The designs have been reproduced digitally onto large scale vinyl and installed on the some of the windows over on Platform 2. Keeping with the original idea of moquette as a seating material, metal seats in the waiting room have been covered in the colourful patterned vinyl.
A little booklet documenting the Middlesbrough Moquette story has been produced and will be available in the waiting room on Platform 2 for passengers to read and take away. View and download a digital version of this here
Blog post written by Emma Bennett reflecting on the development of her commission for Middlesbrough’s Most Creative Station programme.