The Elephant & Tortoise sculpture was created by local artist Barnaby Barford and was installed in Signal Walk, E4 9BW in February 2016.
The sculpture represents the previous use of the site by the Xylonite factory around which much of Highams Park was built.
The design is based around the Xylonite logo which featured an elephant and a tortoise representing the company’s business of manufacturing artificial ivory and tortoiseshell.
Xylonite, also known though its brand names of Bex Bissell and Halex, at one time manufactured table tennis balls and this is represented by the small holes all of which are the size of a ping pong ball.
The sculpture was funded by Tesco, as a condition of the planning approval for the Highams Park store. Barnaby’s work was selected by a large majority of local people from a range of proposals put forward by different artists, following a consultation led by The Highams Park Planning Group.
You can find out more about the history of the sculpture and the Xylonite factory’s importance to the development of Highams Park from the information below.
