Spiral Nebula outside the Herschel Building, off Haymarket Lane, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne

Sculpture, 1962 by Geoffrey Clarke, commissioned by Sir Basil Spence to stand outside his Herschel Building for the Physics Department of the University of Newcastle (at that time King's College, University of Durham, becoming the University of Newcastle in 1963).

MATERIALS: steel armature with cast aluminium panels. Painted with micaceous iron oxide and microcrystalline wax during the 2012 restoration.

PLAN: a free-standing sculpture with a vertically-set shield and coil with a tall spire standing on a narrow, rectangular platform or bench.

DESCRIPTION: the sculpture stands on the NW side of the Herschel Building and is set at an angle to the building. It is a large, abstract design, though clearly symbolic of the scientific advances in the 1960s. The main section is set on a narrow, rectangular bench or platform standing around 1.2 metres high on rectangular legs. The bench has an angular appearance being covered in textured, cast-aluminium panels with projecting pegs or dowels. The shape of the main section is based on some form of electrical equipment or receiving dish held by a clamp with V-shaped base which stands at the N end of the bench. The clamp is covered in small, pegged, cast aluminium panels, giving the effect of wooden slats. One side of the main section is made of a large, loosely-wound coil covered in angular, cast aluminium panels. The other side is shaped like a roughly circular shield or receiving dish of cast aluminium with raised seams, which cups the coil. Two, roughly horizontal, circular steel tubes emerge out of the aluminium panels to flank the spiral like stripped wires or antennae. The whole is topped by a tall spire or antenna rising approximately 4 metres. The lower half is covered by small, cast-aluminium panels from which a circular steel tube emerges.