Etchings on the first floor of the former offices of Lazard bank in Stratton Street, Mayfair

WORK by a renowned landscape artist is to be used to decorate a school’s security fences.

Norman Ackroyd died aged 86 last September after a period of illness but had given his blessing for his friezes of British coastlines and countryside to be used at the King Solomon Academy.

The school in Marylebone is waiting for the final green light from council planners, but the plan is to reuse Mr Ackroyd’s artwork at the front of the building in Broadley Street.

Mr Ackroyd had been commissioned to bring the “wildness of nature into London’s West End” when he first created a series of etchings on steel for the offices of the Lazard bank. Passers-by in Stratton Street, Mayfair, may have looked up and seen them on the balconies.

Close-up of Norman Ackroyd’s friezes on steel

Lazard, however, has now moved to a new base in Marylebone, triggering the plan for the art to get a second lease of life at the school.

Hugo Dalton, from Hugo Dalton Fine Art, has been leading the project and said in a letter to planners: “The proposed new location I feel will be ideal given the subtle beauty of the artworks and depictions of the countryside and coastal scenes from around the British Isles.

“The artwork will further enhance the recent improvements to the area. It will also inspire and educate new generations of local children and the community with the work of a great British artist, without having to make a special journey to a gallery or museum.”

Before his death Mr Ackroyd had shown his support, saying “it would be nice to find a really good home for them”.

Made a CBE in 2007, his works are sought after across the world and they feature in the collections of Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He had met the likes of Mary Quant and David Hockney during his time as a young man at the Royal College of Art. Later in life he was granted the honour of becoming a Royal Academician.

Gabby Woolf, vice-principal at King Solomon, said in a planning application explaining the need for the fences: “Some example of security issues are people climbing over the wall to gain access to our site both while school is in session and at night time when there is no one there. This has involved drug use and thefts from the school.” She added: “The railings will be an extension to the relatively low brick wall running along the north side of the site.”