East Dulwich Station Mural is being painted

[jamesmcash]

Hi all

This is very exciting! Well done to the East Dulwich Action Group for all your work on this.

I previously raised with council officers the risk of the mural being defaced by tags etc. I don't want to speak too soon - and clearly I cannot promise anything! - but I am told that local experience suggests that murals are much less likely to be targeted than blank walls. Perhaps an unwritten code for street artists...

Best wishes

James

[Nigello]

I admire your confidence but some of the fantastic murals (the one near the EDT; the one on the side of the William Hill: the one on Goodrich Road) have all been vandalised by thoughtless "taggers". The works need to be protected with a varnish. Just look at the lovely one near to Goose Green playground, which was touched up to cover over tagging and then got tagged again if you need more proof that all "taggers" don't respect art.

[jamesmcash]

Fair points. Fingers crossed it will be ok until the funding is in place for a long term solution.

Best wishes

James

[worldwiser]

I really was so excited to see this today going through on the bus. Except all there was to see was the usual grey walls. Can't quite understand why the mural was positioned such that no one will see it on the other side of the street and no-one in a bus, bike or car will either. Previous murals that have gone up recently are visible by everyone entering the area.. Forest Hill, Herne Hill etc. Why is it that this one only welcomes those coming home by train? It does look lovely. Shame I'll never see it.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

It definitely would have been nice if the other walls were painted also.

[BrandNewGuy]

Painting the two 'inner' walls to be visible from the road would entail shutting the road, which I imagine wouldn't be possible for a project like this. In Herne Hill etc, the pavement is wide enough for safety purposes.

[sally buying]

Over the past few weeks it did not seem to bother the powers that be to close that part of the road.

[BrandNewGuy]

Utilities and developers are always going to be treated differently to artists :-)

[DulwichFox]

Having the walls painted visible to the road would be a Huge distraction to cars/ motorists.

The Road is narrow there with a crossing. Real risk of causing accidents.

[DulwichFox]

Having the walls painted visible to the road would be a Huge distraction to cars/ motorists.

The Road is narrow there with a crossing / Bus stop.

Real risk of causing accidents with slow moving heavy traffic.

DulwichFox

[rendelharris]

Have to say it looks bloody great (and I wasn't convinced by the choice of artists initially) - isn't it better to have it welcoming our visitors by train and visible to pedestrians than visible to car drivers whipping through? It's a nice positive enhancement to the area and should be welcomed.

[eastDAG]

Hi there

Unfortunately this was down to permissions and safety.

The road-side wall was our preferred spot, however these walls don?t have a pavement , so we would have had to close the road completely on one side for 4 days to allow the artists to safely work on the scaffolding. It was highly unlikely that we would have been allowed this by the highways agency. We DID try to work this into a planned road closure (see our previous threads) because of water work upgrades with the new building, but this was too far away from the bridge to close.

So unfortunately it was simply impossible to safely paint the road walls.

Both Foresthill and Herne Hill have a full size pavement in front of them, so it wasn?t a problem for them.

Sorry you didn?t get a chance to see it the other day, but we hope you?ll pop back down as it really is fantastic.

EDAG

-------------------------------------------------------

> I really was so excited to see this today going

> through on the bus. Except all there was to see

> was the usual grey walls. Can't quite understand

> why the mural was positioned such that no one will

> see it on the other side of the street and no-one

> in a bus, bike or car will either. Previous murals

> that have gone up recently are visible by everyone

> entering the area.. Forest Hill, Herne Hill etc.

> Why is it that this one only welcomes those coming

> home by train? It does look lovely. Shame I'll

> never see it.

[Angelina]

Likewise. I rarely walk up that way. The inside of the bridge, on the road facing the station would be visible by everyone.

[eastDAG]

Hi Angelina

See the post just above yours for reasons why the roadside wall was unfortunately not safe or practical to paint. Sorry this is not visible for your normal route, however, you've got an excuse to get a coffee and cake from Blackbird, The Grove, La Scala or FC Cafe enroute, so I?d stock up and have a walk by. It's well worth the walk, and hopefully you'll love it..

EDAG

[northernexile]

Highly unimaginative design when you consider the one just opposite and the one at the side of EDT.

Its better than a pigeon dropping infested slab wall, but a waste of opportunity. Shame.

[eastDAG]

Hi Northern Exile

It's a shame you're not keen on it, but art is subjective. We've had overwhelmingly positive feedback about it, and we absolutely love it.

The Girl at the Window and the Pugilists are part of a planned and linked concept by the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery, driven by Ingrid Beazley, to reinterpret classical art as street art. It's an incredible collection of work.

Our piece isn't part of that campaign.

There are 3 more walls to fill tho, if you are handy with a paintbrush!!

EDAG

northernexile Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Highly unimaginative design when you consider the

> one just opposite and the one at the side of EDT.

>

> Its better than a pigeon dropping infested slab

> wall, but a waste of opportunity. Shame.

[kiera]

I very much like the mural - it's friendly and welcoming to East Dulwich.

I had been sceptical before it was done, because the outdoor gallery ones are of subjects unrelated to East Dulwich and some of them are quite unpleasant - in my subjective opinion of course!

The station mural is a positive and relevant addition to East Dulwich in my opinion, so thank you from me eastDAG

[James Barber]

Hi worldwiser,

We had hoped for it to be painted on the road side as well as the pavement/station side but that would have required the road to be closed and temporary traffic lights to be installed. That would add about ?5,000 of traffic costs.

[lavender27]

It would be so nice to see a new mural painting at the plough ph car park area. I'm bored with the Mad C one, is anyone else?

[Sue]

I miss the bee that was there before :(

[lavender27]

Can you pain something fresh new flowers please.

[Lynne]

And get rid of that horrible Madonna and child

[lavender27]

It's not it's someone on their death bed. ❗