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Basil Oliver and ‘The Pillar of Salt’

Basil Oliver and ‘The Pillar of Salt’
Standing proudly on Angel Hill, the affectionately-named ‘Pillar of Salt’ has been a meeting point for countless thousands of locals and visitors to the town since 1935.

Grade II listed, and reputed to be the first internally-illuminated road sign designed and erected in the country, its architect was the quiet and unassuming Basil Oliver.

Much has been written locally about the architects and builders of the cathedral and the now-ruined Benedictine abbey, but in the first three decades of the 20th century no architect had a greater or more lasting impact on the appearance of the town than our own Suffolk-born Basil Oliver.

Basil, the son of a Sudbury brewer, was born in 1882 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in the town and, following a spell at Liverpool University, completed his professional education at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Whilst architecture was his primary profession, he was a talented artist, having ten pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1890 and 1948.

Basil’s artistic skills bridged both his love of all things ‘Arts and Crafts’ and the emerging Art Deco movement which followed the Great War. This is nowhere more evident than in the former Greene King ‘Rose and Crown’ public house on Newmarket Road, Cambridge. The exterior is a classic 1928 Art Deco design, but many of its internal fittings were crafted by the Art Workers Guild, of which he was Master at the time. During this period, Basil had been retained by Greene King to build or re-fit its stock of tied public houses. Sadly, most of the records from Greene King and his work for them have been lost – but it is accepted that he was most likely involved in fitting out several pubs in Bury.

Basil Oliver’s work can be seen in other parts of the eastern region, including Castling’s Hall, Groton, and the acclaimed war memorial in Great Dunmow. However, it is around Angel Hill that we can see some of the best examples of his work, including ‘The Pillar of Salt’, the old Borough Offices (described by Pevsner as ‘Neo-Georgian, tactful and completely uneventful’) and his sympathetic 1935 remodelling of the entrance hall and inner reception area of the Athenaeum. 

Basil was a prolific writer on his chosen profession including, naturally enough, ‘The Renaissance of the English Public House’ in 1947.

Whilst much is known about his public persona, his private life was unremarkable.  Having never married, he shared a house with his sister Violet Oliver for most of his adult life, and was still working until his death in May 1948 in Sudbury, at the age of 65.

When the Pillar of Salt was first erected, it did not meet with universal approval by the residents of the town, but today we could not envisage Angel Hill being stripped of this unique piece of street architecture.

See Suffolk Artists

Terry O’Donoghue, Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides