Wow! Another years passes. The London Mural Preservation Society is nearly three! How time flies!
So what have we been up to this year?
In January, we were mentioned in the Wandsworth Guardian in reference to the threat of demolition of the Battersea Puzzle Mural. A few more murals were photographed and over ten more added to our website.
Photographed in January: a detail from Danebury Avenue Mural, Roehampton
A new addition to the team was welcomed at the end of February!
Baby Chloe born in February to Ruth (Founder of London Mural Preservation Society)
Roll on March and we got confirmation that the Heritage Lottery Fund were happy for the If Walls Could Speak Project to go ahead! This was the project which involved restoring the Brixton Windmill Mural and creating the documentary about the Brixton murals.
April and a big bang blew away part of the Camberwell Hokusai Wave mural. Local blog picked up the story from us.
May saw the beginning of the repairing and restoring the Brixton Windmill Mural.
Original Windmill Mural by Mick Harrison and Caroline Thorpe
A local consultation was had to ask locals what they would like to see in the mural. Brian Barnes came to give a talk about his history with murals. A Brixton walk was taken with a film crew along! That was quite a day!
Our team blogged away as the mural evolved from a faded cracked facade to a beautiful masterpiece.
June saw the grand opening and an appearance on the local BBC news!
The team who painted the mural!
Following the revamping of the mural, we were involved in workshops with children from Stockwell School to create a painting influenced by the murals in Brixton. A mini tour was devised for them, however their favourite bit was when they got an ice cream – even beating their experience of being shown how to do spray painting by Solo One at the Stockwell Graffiti Hall of fame!
Asides from this project a season of walks were taken. We had a new East London Line walk, written about in Londonist, and the Brixton Mural walk was run again with a grand turnout of 30!
Brixton Mural Walk July 2012
During the Olympics we got interviewed for Australian radio. Click here to listen!
September saw the beginning of the launch of the Nuclear Dawn Restoration Campaign on facebook – if you haven’t had a look, please do. We hope to update people soon with what is happening.
Save Our Mural!
We also had the premier of the If Walls Could Speak documentary. A great little piece. Do watch it!
The last couple of months have seen a campaign to get people on board with helping to repair the Camberwell Hokusai Mural. Artists have offered their time, paint had been promised so there is just a wait for money for scaffolding. All in good time – we’ll keep you posted.
Other good news was that the Love over Gold mural got a little bit of repair – the doors had the mural painted back on them and bits of tagging of painted over. However, this is till the beginning of this story. Money needs to be raised for a proper repair job.
Detail of Love Over Gold mural
And finally, we have got involved with the Save our Subways campaign. The Elephant and Castle subways which are covered in murals are under threat. We are involved in raising awareness of just how great they are. Check out their facebook here and look out for events coming soon!
So, another amazing year for us! Lets keep at it – onwards and upwards. A big thanks to all our volunteers: Jim, Hannah, Hilary, Hilary, Sylvie, Gillian, Ben, Pete, Matt, Richard, Bee and Sandy
And thanks to the people we have worked with: Vinnie O’Connell, Brian Barnes, Art4Space, Greenwich Mural Workshop, Clapham Film Unit, Verusca, and Postive Arts.
A very action packed year!