‘Mosaic as an art form originated in ancient Greece, as did the Olympic Games, so I thought it was obvious that the London Olympics in 2012 needed a mosaic to mark the event,’ explains Tessa Hunkin, mosaic designer and founder of the Hackney Mosaic Project, before adding with self-deprecating irony: ‘Though I’m not sure anyone else spotted the connection.’
Tessa is recalling the project’s inaugural commission, an epic suite of five mosaics adorning a once-neglected corner of Shepherdess Walk in Shoreditch, east London, where panels illustrating life in the borough of Hackney through the seasons preside over two expansive pavements depicting native wildflowers. The designs were inspired by Tunisian mosaics, she reveals, used by archaeologists to piece together an understanding of how the Romans lived. ‘I thought: Yes, our mosaic can do the same for London,’ says Tessa. ‘The idea was to make something that appears Classical, but, if you look a bit closer, you see it is actually recording contemporary life.’
A pageant of the burghers of Hackney at play unfurls in vignettes of jogging, skateboarding, dog walking, picnicking and, inevitably, locals tapping away on mobile phones. It is a lyrical vision interrupted by a park keeper with a leaf blower and punctuated with urban wildlife, all contained within bold graphic borders. This one-off commission – which was originally funded by the local authority to support those in recovery from addiction – has since grown into a passionate crew of mosaic-makers from across the borough and all walks of life.
When we meet in the project workshop on Hackney Downs, a dozen volunteers are serenely placing tiny ceramic tiles on to brown backing paper while Tessa tells her story. More than 1,000 people have participated in the project under her leadership, beautifying unloved corners throughout the East End and beyond, as illustrated in a new monograph published by Spitalfields Life Books in October.
The original Tunisian mosaics Tessa admired were created by teams of makers, each responsible for different elements that comprised the whole. The tension between their differing energies and abilities, contained within a unifying design, is precisely what charged the artworks so vividly with life. She applied this same approach to the Hackney Mosaic Project, permitting the diversity of talents involved to become the strength of the work, elevating their collective aesthetic achievement far beyond what might be expected of community art. ‘My challenge has been to employ the not-so-super skills of volunteers by harnessing their personalities, so the character of the maker is preserved in mosaic,’ she explains. Both the Shepherdess Walk mosaics and the Hackney Downs shelter – the project’s second commission, a playground hut decorated with exotic animals – exemplify this way of working.
While more experienced makers tackle the complex elements of Tessa’s designs (human figures and animals, for example), repeated geometric borders offer a good starting point for newcomers. She first sketches her design on to translucent backing paper, which she cuts into pieces, handing sections to the volunteers, who render the images with tiles in reverse, glued to the paper. When each section is completed, they are pressed face down into fresh cement, before the paper is washed away and the finished work revealed. In ancient times, mosaicists had to chip tesserae from stone, but today tiles are made from ceramic and glass to a uniform size and depth, which are easy to cut.
‘I’ve learned techniques I never knew because I hadn’t done anything like this before,’ says Janice Desler, who has been involved in the project for ten years. ‘It may look like Tessa just lets us get on with it, but she’s teaching us subtly all the time.’ Tessa’s perspective is slightly different. ‘When we started it was my design and everyone had to follow my rules, but obviously that got a bit wearing for everyone, being bossed around by me,’ she admits. Now, the volunteers alternate between group commissions and personal projects, which are exhibited and sold at the Hackney Downs workshop.
Another volunteer, Ken Edwards, is busy working on a small panel of a squirrel when I visit. ‘I am a recovering alcoholic of 13-and-a-half years. I wasted so much of my life, but now I am not just making mosaics, I am giving something back to the community,’ he confides. ‘I wasn’t too eager at first because my dad was a brickie, so walking in to see people cutting one-inch tiles was a bit daunting. I told Tessa I would come back the following week, but she knew I would never return, so she sat me down and gave me a mosaic to work on. Fourteen years down the line, I am still hooked.’
The project has installed dozens of mosaics since 2012, ranging in scale from modest single pieces to elaborate multi-panel works. It is a staggering achievement in public art, both in its consistent quality and as a sustained corpus in an underfunded sector. Since public money dried up a decade ago, the group has supported itself through private commissions. ‘When we get well-paid jobs, we funnel it into mosaics for local estates and those who don’t have any money,’ Tessa says. ‘We are helping the community by tackling social isolation and supporting those in recovery, but we are also creating something attractive that people want.’
One of the project’s most popular works is The Hounds of Hackney Downs, a series of dog portraits decorating a painted brick wall in the park. According to the forthcoming book, the mosaic’s launch party in 2021 was attended by more canines than humans. ‘We have got to know all kinds of people – and some very expensive dogs,’ says Tessa with delight. ‘While the borough has become more gentrified over the past decade, one of the advantages of what we do is that it appeals to both old and new Hackney,’ she concludes, speaking plainly. ‘Public space is what we share in common.’
‘Tessa Hunkin’s Hackney Mosaic Project’ is published by Spitalfields Life Books on 2 Oct. For more information, visit hackney-mosaic.co.uk.
The Gentle Author publishes a daily blog about London culture at spitalfieldslife.com
A version of this article appeared in the October 2025 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers
