The Blake mural has been painted over by the Council

[????]

100

[PeckhamRose]

No!

[tasty_snacks]

i cannot believe anyone would be so daft. surely the chap physically painting the wall must have realised what he was doing? lunacy.

[PeckhamRose]

"Just doin' me job innit".

[Sue]

I've just been forwarded this.

I'm intending going to the meeting if I can make it, suggest anybody else who feels strongly might like to do the same?

____________________________________________

From: Allison, Ursula

Sent: 30 September 2008 13:56

To: '[email protected]'; 'Eileen Conn'; '[email protected]'; Kotecha, Bimal; Nardell, Gordon; Jones, Susan; Glover, Mark; Ward, Veronica; '[email protected]'; Alan & Lulu Chapman

Cc: Sheaff, Jon; Whitehead, Anya; Thornton, Rosie

Subject: Blake Mural meeting

Hello All,

I would like to propose that we meet on Wednesday 15 October at 6pm at the Blake Mural. The reason I'm suggesting it be held in 2 weeks time is to give us enough time to invite key stakeholders and interested local community members and advertise it to ensure a good turn out. Also, Anya Whitehead, the Arts and Heritage Manager has contacted Stan Peskett and asked for provisional costings for the work, so we should have heard back from him by then.

We know that the local community ideally want the mural restored so unless this changes we can assume we do not need to consult on this.

The purpose of the meeting is to to inform the local community about how we are going to go about restoring the mural.

The plan so far is as follows:

1 Contact Dulwich Festival and owner of wall to gain permission to restore mural.

2 Discuss with original artist options for repairing the mural under his direction, including the possiblility of community involvement in this process.

3 Implement works.

I will be putting up several posters around Goose Green and the Playground advertising this meeting. Please circulate this email to anyone who may be interested in attending.

Kind regards,

Ursula Allison

Community Outreach Officer (Dulwich Area Parks)

[PeckhamRose]

Thanks for telling us about this meeting.

I LOVE how Southwark Council is so reactive/reactionary.

Can we have the actual man (or woman) who made the decision to paint over it without asking anyone, to be there too?

Having said that I'm working so I won't be able to take my own blue paintballgun to aim at HIS bottom half...

[Sue]

Let's be fair, they've taken what we've said on board and are actively looking to correct what's been done.

I too used to have a negative opinion/stereotype of councils/the people who work for them based on some bad experiences, but I'm now working for Islington Council and I see a lot of very committed people working there.

Then you get an incident like this - or like one I was told about last night at the Islington in Bloom awards ceremony where one of the award winners had her "forgotten corner" transformation slashed to the ground a week or so ago by a contractor who claimed it was on council property, due to be slashed, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Now I've got to find out how on earth that could have happened and stop anything similar happening again, so I'm on the other side of the fence .....

:)

[PeckhamRose]

Peckham Rye and Nunhead (or should that be Nunhead and Peckham Rye?) Community Council meeting tonight. However, I don't think it's in that area. Still, I shall see who's there and ask if they're going to the meeting.

[Eileen]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

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

> Peckham Rye and Nunhead (or should that be Nunhead

> and Peckham Rye?) Community Council meeting

> tonight. However, I don't think it's in that area.

> Still, I shall see who's there and ask if they're

> going to the meeting.

Hi PeckhamRose

were you at the CC meeting? (Nunhead & Peckham Rye btw...) I had asked for a slot to say something about the mural issue, and GG meeting at the mural on 15 October, but was confined to the end at Questions when most people had gone. I just had time to mention the issue for the record and that we needed to do something about the way officers don't seem equipped to handle issues where people who live in a locality probably know a lot more about the issue than the Council officers, and it would be more efficent to communicate with them first. With a bit of luck we might be able to get into this at the next meeting 12 November when the Council CEO, Annie Shepherd, will be there for the first time. By then hopefully everything will have been decided about how to restore the mural. Then it would be more about learning the lessons for real of this continuous failure to communicate locally by unjoined up Council departments.

[PeckhamRose]

No. I was working in the end.

But well done for trying to nag someone about it.

But the council does not learn from anyone ever.

You should see the mess they're making of the big contract they have going with Apollo Housing on our estate.

They should have learned from past lessons on that but they haven't. That's another topic.

Anyway, so well done for what you did Wed evening.

[Sue]

I just want to remind people that there is a meeting at the site of the Blake mural at 6pm this Wednesday, 15 October.

If you want to have a say in what happens, would be good to be there if possible.

I'm going to try to get away from work early to be there.

[PeckhamRose]

I shall be working but look forward to hearing all about it. Hope someone takes good notes and reports back all the council folk's names and who said what. Thanks to all who will go on our behalf.

[Sue]

Oh God I forgot to go :-$:-$:-$

Only got back from work at 7.30 :-$

[p_in_ed]

I was there at 6 o'clock with my four year old. Ursula Allison was there, with maybe eight others at that point. I only stayed for fifteen minutes (bedtime called), but left my details with Ursula together with comments that I was keen to see the mural re-instated and was keen to be involved. Ursula gave an upate to us all on contact with Stan Peskett, who sounds as though he is willing to be involved in re-instating the mural, but won't be available until next May.

One of the councillors arrived (Gordon Nardell I think - apologies if it was someone else - I was in a bit of a rush ) and gave an update on the willingness of the Council to fund the work.

He also reported that he'd been in touch with the Dulwich Festival organisers, who were keen to be involved in some way.

There are still hurdles to overcome; key one is getting the approval of the owners of the wall that the mural is painted on.

Others may have turned up after I left, and I'm sure there was more detailed discussion.

From my own point of view, I was pleased with the update, and don't see having to wait until May to get the mural re-instated as a real problem. Would be nice if it could be done sooner, but if it gets done at all thats fine with me.

Paul

[Sue]

Hey Paul that's great, I'm so glad someone was able to go and report back :)

[PeckhamRose]

Yes thank you for reporting back.

Typically, Southwark Council paint over a third (or so) of a mural in an afternoon with no notice.

Then it could take 7 months for them to get round to reinstate it. I am sure there will be lots of meetings, and meetings about meetings, and costings and feasibility studies, all expensive in themselves, in order to get it done though.

Was anyone else there from... here?

[LazarusLong]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

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

> Yes thank you for reporting back.

> Typically, Southwark Council paint over a third

> (or so) of a mural in an afternoon with no

> notice.

> Then it could take 7 months for them to get round

> to reinstate it. I am sure there will be lots of

> meetings, and meetings about meetings, and

> costings and feasibility studies, all expensive in

> themselves, in order to get it done though.

> Was anyone else there from... here?

Yes, it's mind blowingly mental.

[Moos]

Yes, I was - there were about 10 people altogher.

Gordon and another councillor were there, along with Ursula Allison. They were keen to reassure us that 'the money will be found' to reinstate the mural, although I was concerned that no-one had a clue how much it was likely to cost. Apparently each of the wards has 'cleaner, greener, safer' budget to spend. And (as Paul says above) not only had the owners of the wall not yet consented, it seemed as though they had not yet been spoken to at all.

It seems the artist is keen to update rather than just replace the mural, possibly with some built-in graffit space.

[PeckhamRose]

Built in graffiti space???

Oh why not encourage them!

[beef]

YEAH! built in graffiti space, what a terrific idea! Why don't we also include an old lady they can mug and a young teenager to stab! Since the wall has been vandalised by the council it has remained blemish free. Could this be because 'taggers' only want to irritate and annoy with anonymity rather than actually provide an artistic response to society's ills? Can't seem to find the 'hang em by the neck till dead' emoticon on this toolbar.....

[Moos]

Well, I rather agree that the mural would be better without additional planned graffiti, but I thought it better to report neutrally.

Suggest you take it up with your ward councillors and let them have your views. Don't be the, ahem, silent majority.

Re: the tagging (although I'm amused to see someone equating it with murder) I believe the mural went untagged for many years and it was only once some quite small tagging happened that other taggers joined in and really went to town, so I expect we will see a similar pattern on the 'blue canvas' between now and May.

[Ted Max]

I think they will leave the blue canvas alone suspecting it to be a honey trap/ too easy.

For that reason, when the mural is restored, I propose putting in for Greener, Safer, Closer, MmmBabyRightThere funding for 24 hour sniper presence on top of St John's's steeple. They can take down any taggers, as well as non-scooping dog owners and non-comedy tyro sex offenders.

Half-serious suggestion - perspex or similar covers to 10 ft or so, that can be replaced reasonably cheaply in the event of repeat tagging.

[Mark]

I popped along last week but unfortunately missed the crowd but did get to chat to Ursula. The Artist wants two or three weeks to work on the painting next year including having some sort of workshop to involve the locals as he may want to develop a new idea rather than just repaint the same picture. The aim is to "launch" the painting at the Dulwich Fair next May. I feel that, putting aside the blue paint indecent, the council have taken this seriously and are working hard to put something back.

As for the tagging i think it follows the Fixing Broken Windows theory, basically when one person does something, others follow. The trick here is to report any graffiti that you see as soon as possible. There were some tags on the new Goose Green notice boards, I reported it online Wednesday and it was gone by Friday

Southwark's online Graffiti reporting website: https://securesite.southwark.gov.uk/ShowForm.asp?fm_fid=236

Added: ...and apparently the wall's going to be covered with an anti-graffiti coating.

[edited once]

[Loz]

Added: ...and apparently the wall's going to be covered with an anti-graffiti coating.

Here's hoping that it actively repels blue paint!

[Sue]

Mark Wrote:

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

> The

> Artist wants two or three weeks to work on the

> painting next year including having some sort of

> workshop to involve the locals as he may want to

> develop a new idea rather than just repaint the

> same picture. The aim is to "launch" the painting

> at the Dulwich Fair next May. I feel that, putting

> aside the blue paint indecent, the council have

> taken this seriously and are working hard to put

> something back.

> >

>

xxxxxxx

I hope the "new idea" to be developed retains the Blake theme, that was what I liked about the mural, that it was about a bit of local history ..... and I'm a Blake fan :)

Agree re the council, I think the response has been excellent and they are doing their utmost to put right something which clearly shouldn't have happened in the first place :)

PS I like the reference to the blue paint "indecent" (a bit like blue movies, perhaps) but sadly I assume it's meant to be "incident" :)