Talacre Bench has been spruced up

In the spring of 2008, the Talacre Bench project was completed. Among the designers was Salvador Dali’s great nephew Slim Dali, who has since died, at the age of 49.

An artist in his own right, Slim lived on the northern edge of Talacre Gardens (Prince of Wales Road), and participated in various community projects.

His involvement with the Talacre Bench, a Gaudi-inspired work, caused a bit of a sensation locally when it was created with the help of grants from the Lottery (Awards for All) and GO partnership.

Apart from Slim’s role in the design and execution of the project, it involved some 400 local students working together with teachers from Art4Space to create thousands of ceramic pieces.

In the meantime, volunteers were involved in digging a foundation, laying bricks and other construction materials and plastering.

The 9.3m long structure required 1700 bricks, five tonnes of sand, one tonne of cement and one tonne of rubble. It remains very popular with children and grown-ups alike, although over the years had lost its sparkle.

Consequently, the Friends of Talacre thought that it would be a suitable memorial gesture to Slim Dali to revamp the bench for the summer. With coats of paint and a little TLC, the Talacre Bench is again ready to inspire and delight young and old and all those in between for another decade and possibly more.