Roundabout Spotting
What started as a bit of a joke became a new and interesting hobby of mine ‘Roundabout Spotting’.
So, join me through our roundabout calendars on a journey across the Happy Hunting Grounds of Milton Keynes. Let’s leave our footprints in the sand and island hop along the shimmering shores of Blackpool. Experience the Magic Rings of Swindon. Come fly with me across the fertile gyratory plains of Norwich. Discover the intoxicating aromas of a Grimsby fishing ‘bout.
Allow me to be your guide and drive you around the bend, around the roundabouts of Britain.
Roundabouts of Redditch
Our story begins back in 2003. I ran a small print shop in Redditch. Each year we liked to print off a calendar to give out to our best customers. We all agreed this time we would produce a calendar that summed up Redditch as a town where we worked and lived.
Now Redditch at this time could claim they had three prisons (this is true) but no cinema. We did have a 24 hour Tesco though.
Not inspired by this boring knowledge we racked our brains and came up with an idea. Being once a New Town, the Redditch Council laid loads of roundabouts at almost every junction with very few traffic lights.
With copious pretty roundabouts to choose from it was quite easy to produce 12 island shots. Hence ‘Roundabouts of Redditch’ 2004 calendar was produced to the Redditch public and later to the whole nation.
The Graham Norton Show on BBC somehow gained a copy and Graham took the pee a little bit, but the audience loved it. Then it all went crazy. I suppose these days you would call it ‘going viral’. TV & radio interviews followed and most of Fleet Street showed up on our doorstep. We went on to produce 20,000 ‘roundabout’ calendars.
The’ Roundabouts of Redditch’ went on to become the ‘Best of British Roundabouts’ calendar, which has also spawned ‘Roundabouts of the World’ calendar.
Pick up your 2023 Calendar
Kev’s cabinet
Check out Kev’s latest blogs with images, articles, radio interviews and videos about Kev and he’s various projects over the years.
What people say
“I would love to have a statue or fountain in the middle of the roundabout of 96th and Westfield Blvd. I think the roundabout that transitions one from Marion County into Hamilton County should be impressive. Although the process of creating this roundabout is complete it would be so nice to do something impressive. Right now this roundabout looks unfinished. What if we had live artists performing in the midddle of the roundabout during busy times of day like the morning and evening rushes? Small light shows at night? I think we can do a lot to improve our roundabouts.”
Get in touch
To get a message to Kev simply complete the form opposite or call him on 07815 630416.
