The Blake mural has been painted over by the Council

[Mark]

At the top of Goose Green there is a mural that looked like this:

http://www.londonersworld.com/images/BlakeMural.jpg

A Tree Filled with Angels at Goose Green, East Dulwich *

It now looks like this...

after council workers painted it yesterday. Anyone know why? Are they going to paint over all of it?

I am a member of the Friends of Goose Green, and part of what we do is preserve the green and the playground but we knew nothing about this. Myself and others in the group that I have heard from are all outraged at this council exercise. Personally I thought we had a good relationship with the council and that we were working for same goal of keeping the green and playground an enjoyable place for everyone. How does painting the bottom third of a famous mural blue help achieve this?

Mark

*"This mural (pictured above) commemorates a vision that a young William Blake saw on Peckham Rye in 1767 ? a vision of 'a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars'.

Taken from the Londoners world website

Read about the artist here http://www.stanpeskett.com/index.php?categoryid=43&p17_sectionid=20

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

That is such a shame - I loved that mural.

[TillieTrotter]

What are they playing at the silly people. The mural should have been protected.

[PeckhamRose]

Oh that is just awful! Where is the Councillor who occasionally frequents this forum when he has something to publicise? I love that picture! Not even the ar$ewipes who painted it over had the intelligence to question why and refuse to do it, that's sad too.

[SteveT]

Have they kidnapped the nipper having a pee?

[AllforNun]

I just took this photo on my way past, probably that binksy geezer and his stencils, what a liberty !

[candj]

That is absolutely outrageous Mark. What idiots the council are and do they actually think it looks better? I can't even imagine the reason behind doing this. I wonder if it could possibly be restored.

[Clinker]

What twats...

[macroban]

> What idiots the council are

The Council can't be an idiot.

An individual working for the Council who can be identified and named is an idiot.

Who was it it?

[bon3yard]

Thats what happens when you have Taliban counsellors...maybe they're updating it with some Banksy street art.

[will dex]

someone email the papers

[Jimbob]

you do it.

[will dex]

dont know anyone into journalism but im sure someone here is?

[Clinker]

Clinker Wrote:

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> What @#$%&...

Wow, what happened me cus word???

[Mark]

The user jumpinjourno is with Southwark News and I know that the South London Press have been told.

[PeckhamRose]

I've alerted my councillor who is in the neighbouring ward and he should pass it to the relevant one and the council idiot concerned.

[Siduhe]

At a guess, the mural may have been graffitied (sp?) and one of the Council's contractors has "cleaned it up" by painting over it. Something similar happened when we lived in Borough, when a local youth centre mural was tagged and then big sections of it were covered in grey paint. The youth centre complained and got a "we have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti and will clear it up wherever it appears on public streets", no apology, but they did ultimately get a contribution towards some paint to redo the mural.

[louisiana]

This is completely outrageous. I used to live on Goose Green myself, and have always much appreciated the mural. I'm also a life-long Blake fan.

Does anyone know who the original artist was?

Is there a William Blake Society? (I'm sure there is)

Some jobsworth at the Council... Grr. It makes me so angry that - our - money is being spent on doing *this*. He should be painted blue all over himself.

[beef]

Oh come on people, obviously some very pleasant teenagers have been to the european court of human rights to complain about the council destroying their artwork, and so the council have kindly obliged and given them a blank canvas on which to express their inner teenage torment in the form of 'tagging'.;-)

Seriously though, I think we would have preferred a little cleaning and restoration and the mural protected with a perspex guard a la Banksy as the picture is an important part of our community and very much loved by all. Painting over it was an act of vandalism worse than the graffiti it replaced, and done so without prior consultation!

[Marmora Man]

I have also alerted a local councillor by directing him to this thread - suggest as many as feel strongly about this vandalism do the same - their e-mail addresses are on the Local Info page of the forum.

[kford]

It's graffiti cover-up. You can see some still visible to the right of the shot. Someone was told to 'go out and cover up any graffiti you see' and they duly obliged.

[Sue]

This is disgraceful.

I loved the mural too, and I love Blake.

Does anyone have an email address or a link to anywhere I can add my voice to the complaints?

Edit: Ooops sorry just seen someone has directed people to email addresses .....

Edited again: But where is the Local Info page of the forum?? Can't see it anywhere??

[SeanMacGabhann]

Sue - tabs at the top of the page over on the right

link here

[Sue]

Thanks, have shot off a few emails!

[Cllr Richard Thomas]

Marmora Man Wrote:

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

> I have also alerted a local councillor by

> directing him to this thread - suggest as many as

> feel strongly about this vandalism do the same -

> their e-mail addresses are on the Local Info page

> of the forum.

I have not idea why this has happenned but I've asked the Director of Environment to explain.

Richard