Sculptural relief of Boys Playing Football

This is a sculptural relief, titled ‘Boys Playing Football’, created in 1951-52 by Peter Laszlo Peri. It is made of coloured concrete, laid over an expanded metal mesh, and measures 1.85 metres in height and 2.28 metres in width. The relief is mounted on the stair tower of Wareham House.

The sculpture depicts a naturalistic group of boys engaged in a football game, although a ball is not visible. The figures are modelled using yellow and white concrete. The right-hand figure of the two foreground figures and the outer of the five background figures are in yellow concrete, while the left-hand foreground figure and the inner background figures are in white. The relief arises from a curved brick soldier course. Originally, dark-coloured pointing was used to highlight the relief against the brickwork, but this has been replaced with standard mortar.