Making waves with Cher and London’s homeless

This Wave Bench, designed by Rob Melville, was practically crushed to the ground by ravaging paparazzi last week.

Naturally enough, for it is a fine object, especially in comparison to the institutional metal seating it has replaced at London’s Beacon House hostel for homeless single people.

However, the feral tabloid pack was more interested in Cher, down from her Docklands home to unveil a mural by Dale Devereux Barker at the hostel, than the bench.

“To get close to Cher, they elbowed aside residents of the hostel. They didn’t care about the homeless at all,” laments Melville. “My poor old bench was nearly trampled underfoot.”

Cher seemed genuinely interested, according to Melville. “She wasn’t at all Hollywood”, he says.