“They’ll be astonished by what they’ll find in my garden in years to come. It’ll be like Pompeii or something… Gerry’s Pompeii.”

GERARD ‘GERRY’ DALTON

“A very important place!
There is no other environment of this size and quality in the U.K.”

JARVIS COCKER, MUSICIAN

WHAT IS GERRY’S POMPEII?

With limited resources and infinite imagination, Gerry Dalton (B. Athlone, Ireland, 1935 - 2019) devoted over thirty years of his life to create what has become known as ‘Gerry’s Pompeii.’ An intensely private person, Gerry worked mostly in secret and often at night, to transform his social housing flat, garden and his neighbours’ canal path into a visionary environment, off the Harrow Road in West London.

His miniature interiors, vast collection of carefully re-labelled figurines and bold Napoleonic battle scenes, spilled out onto a small garden; a devotional shrine with an army of over 100 concrete sculptures depicting his heroes of the past. Queen Maeve and Buddha were part of the brave brigade that kept guard over a 50-metre stretch of the canal-bank with lines of topiary and a glittering wall of found and assembled embellishments.

Although Gerry was well known by his neighbours and a thoughtful and caring presence on his street, the full extent of his work was only uncovered after his death in 2019. Despite hundreds of local, national and international supporters coming together to try to save this exceptional visionary world, Gerry’s home was sadly transferred back to Genesis Notting Hill housing association during the pandemic in 2020, and the work inside was removed. What remains is the extraordinary 50-metre long sculpture garden on the bank of the Grand Union canal, which is situated behind Gerry’s former home and visible from the towpath by Meanwhile Gardens opposite.

WHAT DO WE DO?

• We are a charity dedicated to preserving and promoting Gerry Dalton’s artistic legacy. Using Gerry’s story as a catalyst for creative engagement, we work hyper-locally with a range of brilliant community partners to deliver a programme in Gerry’s imaginative and resourceful spirit.

• We provide unusual and playful opportunities for creativity in an area facing significant inequalities and lacking a dedicated visual arts space.

• Our mission is to empower and celebrate everyone’s innate creativity. We invite emerging and established artists to work with communities including; local state schools, youth groups, adults with complex needs and elderly residents to create unique gatherings and new local rituals from workshops, to canal boat processions and street parades, helping people to connect, build skills, confidence and community pride.

• We hope that Gerry’s can move, excite, surprise and embolden everyone, including those who might feel that more traditional arts institutions are intimidating or exclusionary.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Gerry’s canal-side sculpture garden provides the inspiration for our charity, with the mission of preserving the site as a meaningful artistic environment and community landmark. There is a vibrant and creative ecosystem within West London. However, wards surrounding Gerry Pompeii are amongst the most disadvantaged in London. There is a limited community visual arts offer and a significant lack of the inter-organisational resources to create one locally. Gerry’s Pompeii is our opportunity to meet this need as well as our chance to champion a cultural heritage that is usually marginalised, destroyed or left to rot.

Gerry’s Pompeii offers an alternative approach to heritage conservation and arts provision – local, personal and empowering, with a raucous spirit that reflects the idiosyncrasies of this very special neighbourhood. The energy unleashed by Gerry’s Pompeii could not have happened anywhere else – but we believe that other, different reservoirs of creative energy are waiting to be tapped all over the place. In the long-term, we hope that our programme here will serve as a template for creative flowering in neighbourhoods all over the country.

How can you help? The Gerry Ferry…

This is an important moment for us. We are currently raising funds to support our programme, in particular a new partnership with the London Sports Trust which works to provide access to the canals for local children, largely from low-income families. Next year we are looking to enable local children and adults, often who have limited access to the arts and waterways, to arrive to Gerry’s via kayak or canal boat. If you are able to support us with a donation, through volunteering or have ideas for us please reach out to Sasha. We are currently developing a new friends of Gerry’s circle so if you’d like to be a part of this do get in touch!

Current Patrons & Funders

We are very grateful to the generosity of Tamsin Wimhurst, Tom Rosenthal, Jane Hamlyn & James Lingwood, Tim & Maria Church, the City Living Local Life Fund from Kensington & Chelsea’s Golborne & Colville Wards, the GLA’s North Paddington Creates Fund, North Paddington Canal side funding from Westminster council, the Alexander Pigott Wernher Fund, the Craignish Trust, as well as many wonderfully generous people and Trusts who would prefer to remain anonymous who have and are still supporting us! Without you none of our programme would be possible.

If you are able to support us by donating, not only preserve Gerry's garden but also to help us to create and deliver meaningful and unusual gatherings to inspire, empower and enable people to create and experience art when they might otherwise feel excluded please get in touch with Sasha!

Local Community Collaborators