William Mitchell (sculptor)

After long years of neglect, many of William Mitchell's remaining works in the United Kingdom are now being recognised for their artistic merit and contemporary historic value, and have been granted protective, listed status.

In 1938 Mitchell was apprenticed to an established London firm of decorators, where he was taught the basics of the trade, and developed a taste for the history and tradition of the craft.

He was one of the few artists to investigate Faircrete, a John Laing developed concrete product that could be carved whilst still wet, retaining these shapes once dry.

[5] Mitchell also designed the huge internal concrete wall for the reception area at the Lee Valley Water Works in North London.

In one appearance he explained a proposal for attaching a series of photoelectric cells to the 30m high flank wall of the Piccadilly Plaza Tower in Manchester.

He also worked for the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in San Francisco, USA where he was responsible for designing and constructing many of the decorative panelling and sculptural installations at a number of stations across the system.

[9] Other projects in which Mitchell was involved whilst working for Al Fayed, but that never got off the ground, included a footbridge over the River Thames linking Craven Cottage stadium to the southern shore, and a Harrods-themed hotel-and-experience proposal for the Las Vegas Strip.