Sarah Staton was commissioned by Tideway to create a series of three freestanding cast stone and bronze sculptures, located in the compound of Acton Storm Tanks – an existing  Thames Water pumping station and storm water tanks site.

Sarah’s sculptures at Acton depict distinctive historical figures associated with the site, their heads mounted on tall, slim cast Jesmonite columns, each standing approximately three metres high. Responding to the material palette, architectural forms and details of the adjacent Bedford Park, the sculptures echo the triangular plan of the Acton site.

On one column Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s head with distinctive moustache celebrates Acton as the western starting point of the Tideway tunnel system. The second column is topped with the face of an unknown washerwoman, ‘Sybil’, which is cast in bronze, and refers to Soapsud Island, Acton’s entrepreneurial 19th-century home laundries. The third column features ‘Colin’, whose sculptural presence stands for all the unsung heroes, public sector workers and ordinary people of Acton who find the way to make a difference against the odds. ‘Colin’ was co-developed with young people from Bollo Brook Youth Centre.