With 90 beautifully decorated elephant sculptures now appearing throughout Windsor for Thames Hospice’s spectacular Trunks Across the Thames trail, we thought about an earlier local elephant that locals might remember. A striking frieze depicting animals from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book once adorned the Kipling Memorial Building in Alma Road, built for the Imperial Service College in 1939 and named in honour of its most famous former pupil.
After the College left Windsor, the building began a very different life. From 1949 it housed Windsor Council’s offices and clinics, remembered by generations of residents who went there to have babies weighed, collect milk tokens, receive cod liver oil and orange juice—or simply pay their rent and rates. The building was later bought by Rank Hovis McDougall, makers of Mr Kipling cakes, and demolished in the early 1980s to make way for Imperial House. Happily, the elephant frieze survived and was incorporated into the new building, although that too has now disappeared through redevelopment.
As Windsor celebrates its colourful new elephant herd, take a moment to remember this earlier pachyderm and the remarkable building it once decorated. Discover the full story of the Kipling Building—from school dormitory to council offices and cakes—in three fascinating articles on the Windsor Local History Group website.
Further reading
“Kipling Building — From College to Cakes” by Barbara Mitch, 2008.
“Mr Kipling and the big elephant frieze“ by Elias Kupfermann, 2012.
“A Schoolboy’s Memories” by Michael Bayley