The “Master of Suspense”, Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone on 13th August 1899 at 517 High Road. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth, a series of mosaics were commissioned for the entrance to Leytonstone Underground Station. These are collectively known as “The Hitchcock Gallery”…

 
Rebecca (1940) starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier.
(Note St. John’s Church , Leytonstone shown in the window).

The mosaics are the work of the Greenwich Mural Workshop and are made up of over 80,000 tiles. They took more than six months to complete with installation finishing in April 2001.

North by Northwest (1959) starring Cary Grant.

Seventeen mosaics were made - in addition to those shown above, scenes from “The Wrong Man”, “Rear Window”, “The Skin Game”, “Suspicion”, “Psycho”, “Number 17″, “To Catch a Thief”, “The Birds”, “Saboteur”, “Vertigo”, “Strangers on a Train” and “Pleasure Garden” are featured.

Three mosaics feature scenes from Hitchcock’s life - as a young boy outside his father’s shop on Leytonstone High Road, at work on a film set, and relaxing with German actress Marlene Dietrich, who starred in his 1950 production “Stage Fright”.

 For more information, see The Joy of Shards.