Man of Letters: the artist behind Sir John Gielgud’s Memorial Stone

QEST Scholar and Ambassador Wayne Hart is an award-winning letter carver, typographer and sculptor, who was recently chosen by Westminster Abbey to create a memorial stone for the celebrated actor Sir John Gielgud. The prestigious commission was unveiled by Gielgud’s great friend, Dame Judi Dench, at a dedication ceremony in Poets’ Corner on 26 April 2022. Spool back in time to the beginning of March however, and Wayne was poised to make the first cut into the block of Purbeck blue marble. He invited former BBC journalist and heritage craft enthusiast, Helen Miller, to his studio to follow the journey of creation from first cut to the unveiling.

It is a warm spring day in early March and the garage-style rolling door of Wayne Hart’s mezzanine studio is wound fully open revealing views of the tranquil Hertfordshire farmland beyond. Dotted around the studio amid an obstacle course of art materials, tools and easels are some stunning examples of Wayne’s work: a lettered sandstone sphere the size of a beachball; a large pebble with a gold-embossed letter ‘b’ cut into its belly; an elongated green slate engraved with some lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven. All are carved with the distinctive flowing letters that Wayne has made his own.

The first thing to know, he tells me, as he settles down at a huge frame which clamps the diamond-shaped stone upright, is that getting to this point is the hardest and most time-consuming part of the process. I am joining him at the end of a long design period which started with a visit to Westminster Abbey in December 2020, where Wayne met Ian Bartlett, the Clerk of the Works, in order to measure up the floor space chosen for Sir John Gielgud’s memorial stone.

The design itself is the culmination of Wayne’s meticulous research into the life and career of Gielgud, one of the most celebrated actors of the twentieth century, who died in 2000 at the age of 96. Wayne watched and listened to recordings of Gielgud’s performances and consulted broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, the author of a biographical portrait of the actor-director. In the end, what inspired Wayne’s final design was the simple fact of Sir John’s own distinctive handwriting.

“He had these wonderful Gs with this elongated neck at the top… those Gs and the J (of John) are very unique to him… there was just a lot of character to his own handwriting so I just wanted to try and capture that in the design.”

I watch as Wayne transfers the lettering, which he has carefully scaled up and drawn by hand onto sheets of tracing paper, to the stone. He uses carbon paper to draw the outline of each letter, before shading in the area to be chiselled out with white pencil. The key, he tells me, is to make sure the spacing is completely harmonious between the letters.

“There has to be an overall balance in the design and interaction between letters and different lines so things connect. This is lettering, not a typeface, so everything is drawn specifically for this piece and no two letters necessarily need to be identical, which gives it a bit more life and humanity.”

Even before the first cut, the white pencil design stands out clearly against the highly polished block of Purbeck marble, giving a sense of what the finished product will look like.

The stone is only quarried from one part of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and is in reality a type of limestone, composed of billions of fossilised Viviparus snail shells which are clearly visible on the surface. It is dense and harder to carve than some stones but that has its advantages, Wayne explains. With millions of people expected to walk over it in centuries to come, the memorial needs to last – and so does the inscription, which has to be cut deep enough to withstand any erosion.

Wayne employs tools and techniques that have essentially remained unchanged since medieval times. He uses a traditional mallet and chisel to create a gutter down the middle of the letter. He taps in swift distinctive rhythms. He works from the middle to the edge, carving first in one direction then flipping the chisel round to chase in the other side. He repeats until it leaves a perfect V-shaped channel behind; a channel that will create a contrast of light and shadow to really make the letter ‘pop out’ at the observer. On completion, a dilute oil-based paint seals the recesses of the carved letters to prevent them fading back to the colour of the original stone.

Wayne, who is now in his mid-thirties, studied typography and graphic communication at Reading University but became disillusioned with the constant emphasis on designing in 2D for screens. He enjoyed making things in the physical world and was fortunate that one of his modules introduced him to stone carving.

“While everyone else was making their websites, I was carving a rock in a back room on my own,” he laughs.

Crucial grants he secured from QEST and from other benefactors such as The Lettering Arts Trust and The Arts Society funded his apprenticeship with Pip Hall, a renowned stone carver in Cumbria, and helped him get started in his career. He is extremely grateful for the support he received.

In 2019, he became the first tenant to take up residence at Grandey’s Place Heritage Craft Centre near Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, a philanthropic venture whose aim is to preserve and nurture heritage crafts by helping talented craftspeople rent affordable workspaces in order to make a living. It is now home to 19 craftspeople and associated businesses including stained glass making, leatherwork, ceramics, mosaics, sculpture, stringed instrument restoration and millinery.

The camaraderie and support network of fellow craftspeople coupled with the peaceful surroundings of his workplace have helped Wayne concentrate on his craft.

“It’s calming here and doesn’t have many distractions. I can open the door, look out at nature and carve to my heart’s content”

The Gielgud stone is the second memorial that Wayne has carved for Westminster Abbey. His trademark free-flowing letters can also be seen on the memorial to CS Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, which was dedicated in 2013 when Wayne was only 27.

In late April, Wayne joined distinguished guests from the world of theatre and film at the dedication ceremony, led by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle. Dame Judi Dench, who read Shakespeare’s sonnet 29 as a tribute to her “brilliant friend” and fellow actor Sir John Gielgud, pulled the cover off the memorial stone to complete the unveiling.

So how does Wayne feel about his work being on show in Westminster Abbey for centuries to come alongside that of the master masons and craftsmen who originally built it?

“I do feel immensely proud and honoured,” he says. “Westminster Abbey is one of the biggest galleries of art we have, although people may not necessarily think of it in that respect. Many artists have put their work into that building and to be a part of that is really special.”

Wayne Hart’s memorial to Sir John Gielgud can be found in the Abbey’s south transept next to the Shakespeare monument and memorials to other great actors including Sir Laurence Oliver and Dame Peggy Ashcroft.