Description
This striking penguin, Calvin, is inspired by the copperplate printing method used by Royal Worcester in the mid-18th century. He has a copper base, layered with drawings of Worcester landmarks. These drawings represent the intricate engravings that were meticulously etched onto the copperplates.
Audio read by: Nina Das Gupta from BBC Hereford and Worcester
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Artist
Amy Bourbon
Amy Bourbon is a Fine Artist specialising in painting and drawing, specifically large-scale oil painting. She has been awarded a PhD from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
Amy has completed several projects for Wild in Art trails across the UK, the Isle of Man and Jersey. She has created a total of 20 sculptures to date and her auctioned sculptures have raised £113,000 for charity.
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Location
11. Union / Friar Street
Friar Street is Worcester’s best-preserved medieval Streetscapes. The site of Laslett’s Alms-houses was once occupied by a Franciscan Friary, founded around 1235. In time the Friary grew, and a church was built just outside the city walls on the site today occupied by City Walls Road.
Union Street originated as a small lane which gave the Friars access to this church through a small postern gate in the walls which once stood at the end of the road.
More about this location
11. Union / Friar Street
The last of these buildings were pulled down in 1824, when the site was chosen for Worcester’s city gaol. For the next four decades, the gaol’s grim edifice dominated the corner of Friar Street and Union Street, until it ceased to function in 1867. William Laslett purchased the site in that year, founding his alms-houses. Although the site today is picturesque, spare a thought of the alms-houses original inhabitants, who occupied the crumbling buildings of the old gaol! The present buildings weren’t constructed until; 1912. They continue to function as alms-houses to this day.
This location fact has been provided by Joe Tierney of Faithful History. To learn more stories of the ancient city of Worcester, spanning thousands of years of history in ‘The Faithful City’, visit https://www.facebook.com/faithfulhistoryworcester
Take home your own feathered friend
In October 2024 all 40 large penguins and one chick will be auctioned to raise funds for the care provided by St Richard’s Hospice.
In 2021, 31 stunning elephant sculptures raised a mammoth £368,800 to support the care provided by St Richard’s Hospice across Worcestershire.
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