Marlands, Manchester Street and a Herculean task

23 August 2016

Fortified by our coffee we left Costa feeling slightly confused by the sheer number of zebras showing on the app. We stopped for a quick peek over the balcony to give ourselves an idea of the scale of the task ahead. It was daunting to say the least. Below us a whole herd of baby zebra were standing on the podium by the lifts with an adult on guard a little way off. This was going to take some time.

While we were up there looking down I pointed out the terrace of brick houses lining one side of the mall.
“When they pulled down the old bus station, back in 1988, they demolished a row of terraced houses on Manchester Street that had, over the years been turned into shops. My Cousin used to work in the barber shop there. These houses are a replica of the Manchester Street houses come shops, created when the Marlands was built.”
“Wouldn’t it have been easier just to leave the houses as they were and build the Marlands around them?” CJ asked.
“Probably cheaper too,” I agreed. “You should have a job as a town planner. Still, it’s nice they are there to remember what things were like, even if they’re not real.”

Still wondering why the houses had to be knocked down if they were just going to rebuild them, we turned and headed for the stairs. I was a little ahead of CJ and had actually started to go down when he said, “Mum, there’s another baby zebra.”
Sure enough there was a baby zebra hidden in Re So, a shop I’d never even noticed before half hidden around the corner of the stairs. The zebra turned out to be Solar Pegasus, Bitterne C of E Primary School’s baby, designed by Max O in year 4. Max used a space theme to show that earth is the only place the Grevy’s zebras live and highlight their plight as an endangered species.

The shop turned out to be pretty interesting too. Re So stands for The Retail Solent Initiative and it’s a retail store run by Solent University to develop students’ enterprise skills. There were all kinds of interesting clothes and hand made silver jewellery. CJ had to drag me away.

Downstairs we began by checking out Silver, the Marlands very own zebra, painted by Osch. He’s a beautiful tangle of ribbon like stripes in silver to celebrate twenty five years since the opening of the shopping centre. While I was taking photos a young chap wandered over and stroked his shiny tail. The wonder on the faces of the children is what this trail is all about so I didn’t mind too much being photobombed.

Then it was down to the task of ticking off all the baby zebras surrounding the lifts. The word Herculean springs to mind. There was only one way to proceed and that was to start at one end and work our way slowly to the other. First there was Sherbet in blue and yellow, the school colours of Knightwood Primary School. He’s a kind of photo diary about the school created by the children.

Then there was Acorn, inspired by the nature around Fryern Junior School with leaves, stones and a grassy mane.

Next came Everyone’s Unique, the zebra we hadn’t been able to find in the Library. Obviously he was hiding out here all the time with his stripes made of the finger prints of the children of Shirley Junior School.

A to Zedbra was next in line. Each of his colourful stripes represents a letter of the alphabet and he was designed by the children and teachers of Compass School.

Beside him was Arcus, a rainbow zebra with glitter, created by the children of Springwell School.

Zeb Go, The Cedar School’s zebra celebrates Seb Coe and the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He’s quite a cheery chap with his green spots, despite his leg splints and hearing aid.

Then there was Gloria, sporting snazzy swirls in the Lord Wilson Academy’s colours.

Jazzy King is a sensory zebra, covered in textures for the visually impaired children of Kings Copse Primary School. I loved the little bird on his back.

Ziggy the Stardust Zebra came next, painted red, like the uniform of Abbotswood Junior School with stripes made from stars with every child’s fingerprints.

Fair Oak Junior School’s Oakey has a floral mane, oak trees with fluttering leaves and a necklace of finger prints.

Then there was The Statue of Zeberty by Hook with Warsash C of E Academy. With her wonderful flowery plinth and her New York Skyline inspired silhouettes of local landmarks she’s an outstanding beauty.

Itchen Sixth Form College chose magic as their theme with Abracazebra. He has hypnotic stripes, dice eyes and a mane of cards, topped off with a magician’s hat.

Slightly behind the others and on a raised plinth was Zebracadabra designed by Thomas Hallett and Victor Steve of Great Oaks School. He’s a mythological beast with butterfly wings an ermine tipped red coat and spiny, porcupine quills for a mane. A very extraordinary fellow indeed.

Next came Legend, created by Bitterne Park School, clothed in an Ordance Survey map of the city.

Beside him, the stripes on Messages to Zany were made from written messages from all the children at Newlands Primary School.

Near the glass back of the lift we found Bassett Green Primary School’s Marty, covered in colourful stars, each named for a child or member of staff.

Next came Kupigwa, meaning stripes in Swahili, a superhero zebra in a blue suit, red cape and mask designed by the children of Halterworth Primary School.

Beside him was Zena with green dragon scales and a flag of St George on his chest showing he belongs to Saint George Catholic School.

Sanaa Ayo, means a joyful piece of art and the next zebra was certainly that with beautiful blue stripes and artwork by all the children of The New Forest Primary School showing their passion for the world around them.

Finally there was Bob with colourful rainbow stripes filled with square pixels showing the interests of the children of Pixels Home Education.

It had taken quite some time to get round all the baby zebras, find them on the app, tick them off and take their pictures, especially as we kept having to stop to let children have a look at them. With all the colours and fabulous details to take in we were both in danger of sensory overload. There were still zebras left to find  in the Marlands but I was beginning to wonder if we’d bitten off more than we could chew. Perhaps we should save the Zany Zebras headquarters for another day…

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