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A snapshot of 1984

In this year at Warwick:

  • Then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the first building in the Science Park.
  • The Coventry Athletic Track at Westwood was opened by the Lord Mayor of Coventry, Councillor Joe Thompson, it was the largest training track in Britain at the time.
  • Work began on the Arts Centre extension designed to house a gallery, sculpture court, cinema and bookshop (Arts Centre Phase III) as well as on the Social Sciences extension and the Biotechnoloy laboratory.
  • Warwick’s Responsible Body Status, allowing it to provide Open Studies courses in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire, took effect.
  • Dr. Clark Brundin was named as the next Vice-Chancellor of Warwick, following a special meeting of the Council.
  • Warwick Featured in an Award Winning Film 'Degrees of Excellence'.1985

This is one of a number of carved sculptures that were given to the University of Warwick by the artist in 1990 in memory of his brother, Christopher Smith (1961-1987) who had been a student here.

The four carvings are from a five-part frieze made from redundant railway sleepers from the London Underground entitled Variations on a Braided Rope.

They capture images that the artist and his brother would have seen around their childhood home on the Thames estuary in Kent and evoke a journey through time and space.

And in the world:

  • The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
  • Thirty-six of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio to form Band Aid, and record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas", in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
  • The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage on August 30th.
  • The first MTV Video Music Awards are held in Radio City Music Hall, New York City on Sept. 14th.

     

     

     

    thatcher1984

    Margaret Thatcher visiting the Arts Centre in 1984

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    Keir Smith |Hawser, Higham Bight| Jarrah Wood

    1984

    The Science Park, with campus in the background. Taken in 1984