Manual Ref* SUipIP044 Show 4 images 354
Title*

Giles' Grandma
County Suffolk   District Council Ipswich Borough Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Ipswich  Town/Village* Ipswich - Town Centre 
Road Corner of Princes and Queens Streets 
Precise Location On pavement 
OS Grid Ref TM162443  Postcode IP3 
Previous location(s)  
Setting Road or Wayside  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Miles Robinson  Sculptor(s)   

Commissioned by

 Express Newspapers 

Design & Constrn period

 1992 

Date of installing

  

Exact date of unveiling

 4th September 1993 

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Statue of Giles's Grandma

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Grandma and family  Fibreglass  H. 140 cms. Dia 140 cms. 
Plinth  Brick  H. 30 cms D. 20 cms. 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Ipswich Borough Council 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail:

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks GILES/ MILES ROBINSON 92 
Inscriptions On bottle GORDONS DRY GIN 

Description (physical)

 Grandma is shown with her long coat buttoned down to her feet wearing goggle-like glasses under the brim of her hat decorated with flowers. She holds an umbrella in one hand and her handbag-padlocked for security - in the other. She is accompanied on one side by droopy Vera and on the other by the twins pilfering sausages from her bag, notable for its bottle of Gordons Gin, to feed the dog at her feet. 

Description (iconographical)

 The site was chosen since the cartoonist Carl Giles (1916-1995) looked down at it from an office in the Express building where he prepared his cartoons for the Daily and Sunday Express. In 1943 Giles had been recruited by Lord Beaverbrook to the Express Newspapers as a war correspondent and as deputy cartoonist to Sidney Strube. Beaverbrook wanted the best cartoonists regardless of politics and allowed them to convey an independent viewpoint. So Giles remained a Socialist throughout his life and an ardent supporter of the trades union movement, yet Beaverbrook could call him ‘a man of genius’. Giles produced two cartoons a week for the Daily Express and one for the Sunday Express, so allowing him to work from his farmhouse at Wittlesham near Ipswich. On 5 August 1945 Giles introduced into a cartoon what would become known as members of his immortal lower middle-class family comprising a work-shy father, a sensible mother, their son George and his thin sad wife Vera and a number of children including the diabolic Eric and the Twins. Over these ruled Grandma, described by Keith Mackenzie as a ‘bleakly menacing figure drawn from [the] dark subconscious, bird in hat umbrella in hand and reeking of bombazine’. The statue was commissioned by Express Newspapers in 1992 - three years after Giles left because he felt unappreciated. 

Photographs

 Date taken:  7/6/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  7/6/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 www.chrisbeetles.com/pictures/artists/Giles/Giles.ht 04/05/07 www.ipsart.org.uk/tour/grandma.htm 08/10/06 

Database

 Date entered:  4/5/2007

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke