Art / Sculpture
New sculpture pays tribute to famous cloakroom attendant
Victoria Hughes is already remembered with a blue plaque but now a mysterious sculpture has also appeared to honour her memory.
The sculpture is located next to the toilet on the Downs where Hughes worked as a cloakroom attendant or ‘loo lady’ from 1929 to 1962, during which time she “befriended and cared for prostitutes” according to the plaque.
It was a time when the Downs had a reputation as Bristol’s red light district, with Hughes going above and beyond her official duties to befriend the sex workers of nearby Ladies’ Mile.
Hughes kept a kettle in her office and offered women not just a cuppa but also company.
It is this cup of tea and a chat that is the subject of the new sculpture of Hughes, with the artwork between the toilet block and the water tower showing Hughes sat next to another woman as they share a brew.
The new sculpture is outside the toilet block where Victoria Hughes worked – photo: Martin Booth
The piece is by the mysterious Bristol artist Getting Up To Stuff – photo: Martin Booth
The sculpture is by Getting Up To Stuff, whose most recent artwork in Bristol was a teddy bear with its arm around a man at the top of Jacob’s Wells Road.
Writing on Instagram, the artist said: “Ever noticed how most statues are of blokes who we are supposed to admire for making money, making speeches or making life unpleasant for the occupants of other countries?
“And the few female statues are mostly Queen Victoria or nudey nymphs?
“So here’s a tribute to a modest lady who simply showed kindness and compassion to the women who worked the Downs back in the day. My kind of hero.”
Hughes always kept a kettle in her small office – photo: Martin Booth
Getting Up To Stuff said that they intentionally kept the piece “rough, gritty and basic” – photo: Martin Booth
Getting Up To Stuff added: “I normally try to keep things smooth and reasonably realistic, but for these two women who lived through some of the toughest years of the last century it seemed appropriate to keep things rough, gritty and basic.”
Other sculptures by the artist have included a cat outside the Bag of Nails pub, angels in the Bearpit and outside the BRI, a statue of an elderly lady with a hammer and a walking stick on Victoria Street, and small models of men packed into a slave ship underneath the Colston statue when it was still on its plinth.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPf8gwfDnNb/
Main photo: Martin Booth
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