The murals by Eric Rimmington in Portsmouth, his home town, vividly depict life in the dockyard city as it recovered from the second world war. He was 23 in 1949 when he won the commission to decorate the clubroom of the old Trafalgar House Services Club, now a student hostel listed Grade II because of the mural.
It is of considerable interest as an example of postwar public mural painting. It extends across a whole wall. In the foreground sailors with kit bags and women and children are coming and going on the platform of Portsmouth and Southsea station, with historic ships sailing in the Solent in the background. The painting is now glassed in inside a bar, which makes it difficult to see. Rimmington’s mural of the Canterbury Tales in what was the university’s Beddow Hall is no longer accessible. Another was in a Civil Defence building that was demolished years ago.
