Aug 27 2026
A new public art installation has been unveiled at The Boulevard, the 8.2-acre employment site in the growing township of Hampton, Peterborough and part of a joint venture between Sladen Estates and Peveril Securities. The artwork was created by SEL Design to enhance the site's visual appearance with an engaging, long-lasting public display.
Made from sheets of Cor-Ten weathered steel, the artwork consists of nine panels which rotate along the boundary to the front of the site. A key source of inspiration for the piece is the location's former role as London Brickworks Quarry. Honouring the bricks once cast here, the panels have been laser cut to feature abstractions of the brick frog (the indentation in a brick that allows it to bond to the mortar). These abstractions are simplified into shapes and repeated to form a pattern.
Taf Chisambara, Associate Director of Project Management at Sladen Estates, said:
“The artwork adds another layer of identity and quality to The Boulevard, providing an interesting reference to its former use while giving the development a distinctive identity. It creates a connection between the past and the new businesses occupying the site, adding character and a stronger sense of place.”
“It also reflects our wider approach to development: looking beyond the buildings themselves and seeking to understand the places we develop, retain meaningful connections to their history and invest in detail that contribute to their long-term identity and quality.”
Exploring the bricks’ rhythms, patterns and geometries, the artwork reimagines the bricks as a vessel of memory. As viewers move past the space, light and shadow play across its surface, mimicking the flicker of the original kiln fires. As the pattern repeats, the ordinary, when multiplied, becomes monumental.
Acting as both homage and transformation, the artwork is grounded in the past while unfolding a new, meditative presence behind the site's storied walls. Careful landscaping will provide plants which will grow through and around the sculptures, further grounding the artwork to the development’s environment.
Adding permanent interest to the front and western boundary of the site, this art installation weaves together architecture and abstraction, elevating The Boulevard into a development that honours past, present, and future.