London in miniature
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Flat-capped, hands in pockets, he waits for a train that will never come. Down the street from the station, a blue-coated postman stands frozen in conversation. The washing that hangs behind him, strung across the backs of the houses, will remain there forever. No matter; it’s not going to rain.
For Terry Tew, now semi-retired from a career in construction, this scene — an expansive diorama of an imagined London — has been the work of 20 patient years. He calls it Rossiter Rise; a fictional slice of the city located “somewhere in northwest London in the mid-late 1950s”. Its fabrication, Terry explains, relies on childhood memories of the London he grew up in. Its station building is based on Belmont and Primrose Hill, while its underground depot is inspired by Drayton Park; all boasting “very typical London underground fitting and signage”. There are rows of townhouses, stores, gas lamps, pedestrians, workshops and even a newfangled brutalist tower block. It’s a whole, living world.
From his home in Oxfordshire, Terry refers to Rossiter as “a stage, or a piece of theatre”. Looking closely, you can’t help but animate the model with stories and chatter. “I’m trying to create something that people can believe in — or escape into,” Terry explains. I find myself doing both, peering at a vision of London that my grandparents, born and bred in the city, would have felt quite at home in.
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I'm a huge fan of miniatures. I used to walk over to the Art Institute of Chicago during lunch sometimes to look at the Thorne Rooms. I just found them fascinating.
