Former mayor taking pictures of town signs around the world

Nick Houghton, who was mayor for two years up until May this year, was one of the driving forces behind the installation of the Malvern sign.

The sign, which spells out the name of the town in large letters, was installed in Rosebank Gardens by Malvern Town Council in May.

And it split opinion among readers. Some were against both its design and the fact a statue of opera singer Jenny Lind was moved to make way for it, while some thought it looked “fabulous”.

Cllr Houghton's tongue-in-cheek Facebook post (Image: Nick Houghton)

Cllr Houghton, who has defended the installation of the sign several times, is now documenting similar landmarks while on his travels.

“I am going to start taking photos of the town signs I come across on holiday,” he said.

“Whilst visiting Denmark we popped over to Sweden for the day and visited the lovely small town of Lund and we came across the Lund sign, which was proving very popular with visitors on our tour, all standing for a photo opportunity, 

“This is like the Malvern sign in Rosebank Gardens and I often see people posing for photos at the Malvern sign as a photo opportunity of their visit to Malvern.

Malvern's newest sculpture in Rosebank Gardens (Image: Malvern Town Council)

“I am glad to report that feedback on the Malvern sign now it has been installed has been very positive,” added Cllr Houghton.

“A lot of people, it seems, thought we were going to install a huge Hollywood-style sign on the Hills rather than the sign we actually installed.

“I am aware of some visitors from the USA, Finland and Germany who posed for photos and were complimentary of the new addition to Rosebank Gardens.”

The decision to install the sign was approved unanimously at Full Council in October last year and a small working group was established to decide on its location and design with their recommendations agreed by council in February 2023.

After its installation, the council said it hoped people would tag their pictures with the hashtag #malvernsign on social media.