Marking the Gates
‘Marking the Gates’ celebrates one of the longest Roman town walls in Britain via a series of unique bronze plaques, which identify four Roman and two medieval town gates.
Our challenge was to create interventions in the public landscape that celebrate Colchester’s rich heritage and help both residents and visitors easily identify the sites of the town gates and learn more about their history.
A bronze line delineates the position of the North Gate roman wall
The illustrated walking tour builds upon the wayfinding principles established by the Fixing the Link project and shows the importance of Colchester throughout the different periods of history.
Working closely with local historians at Colchester and Ipswich Museums, we designed a map that highlights where the original town wall was located, along with the key points of interest along the route. A series of bronze plaques have been set into the pavement at the points where the four Roman gates and two medieval gates once stood.
We designed an informative walking guide
We designed an informative walking guide
We designed an informative walking guide
“We have enjoyed working closely with historians from Colchester Museum to highlight the rich heritage of Colchester and reveal its historical layers.”
Jonathan Dallas
Dallas-Pierce-Quintero
Colchester’s cultural mapping had previously used a variety of different design languages and our approach was to seek to promote a common language between the original ‘Fixing the Link’ project (a new walking route between the train station and the town centre) and ‘Marking the Gates’. We hope that this will spark further continuity in future projects.
An illustrated walking tour
An illustrated walking tour
An illustrated walking tour
An illustrated walking tour
“It has been a stimulating and rewarding experience working with D-P-Q. They immediately understood the brief and came up with creative solutions. D-P-Q were very responsive to the needs of the client and worked with us to achieve an outcome of a high standard.”
Colchester Borough Council
The material we have used to cast both the plaques and strips is a silicon bronze alloy, as this has a high tensile strength and is twice the corrosion resistance as a gunmetal bronze. Through a process of sampling and benchmarking we were able to cast the shallow relief details with high precision.
We have carefully considered the choice of typography and the legibility of the plaque design, so that the font type and point size was within the parameters set by the building standards to ensure the needs of disabled people were met.
A Roman gate plaque design
A Roman gate plaque design
A Roman gate plaque design
A Roman gate plaque design
A Medieval gate plaque design
A Medieval gate plaque design
As people walk across the plaques, the surface develops an attractive patina, furthering the idea of a contemporary design that over time takes on a historic appearance.
The walking tour has proved to be popular and we hope visitors and residents will enjoy it for many years to come.