Forest Hill Mural Crowdfunder - £2,500+ raised successfully - in 75 hours! :tada:

UPDATE 11th Jan: we have reached our crowdfunder goal in just 75 hours!

@Lionel’s murals have become a popular hallmark of South London, and with your help, Forest Hill is getting in on the action.

Our crowdfunder will run for six weeks from today, and if we successfully raise the funds required, the Forest Hill mural will be painted in March.

Design

The mural design features a nod to the walrus mascot of our local treasure, the Horniman Musuem.

The design and colour was decided by a poll of local residents, after a call for submissions from local artists.

In order to distinguish Forest Hill’s mural from the blue and yellow colour scheme of Brockley’s design, Lionel will tweak the yellow colour (shown in the mock-up) to a London Overground orange.

Location

The site for this mural will be Waldram Crescent (AKA South Circular) under the railway bridge, on the eastern side as indicated here:

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Permissions

We have agreement in principle from Network Rail, who own the underpass. The artist has worked with them on similar projects around South East London. The Horniman Museum have been supportive of our use of the walrus mascot.

We really appreciate your support in this local project. To donate, please visit http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/forest-hill-mural

All money raised will pay for materials involved in this project and payment to the artist

So exciting to see this really starting to become real. My donation is in the bag! Are we going to have an official unveiling?

Hi I have donated but just wanted to ask whether any of the funding is coming from the local council? Whilst it’s lovely to see the community come together to enable projects such as these it does feel like the Council should provide some funding or even match contributions pound for pound. This project will benefit everyone in the local area, making Forest Hill a more welcoming and enjoyable place to live.

Thanks for donating, @anon17648011

I did look into the paperwork for applying for council funding but it specifically applies only to non-profits and SE23.life is owned by my private limited company so I cannot apply directly. There are also other paperwork requirements that may have delayed the project.

I would like future projects to be a collaboration between SE23.life and local non-profits, in which case we’ll be able to work together to secure council funding.

The crowdfunder seems to be coming along nicely, Think the target will be hit within the first week

With the help of 49 generous donors we are now two thirds of the way towards our £2500 target:

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With crowdfunders, the action tends to happen in the last 24 hours before the deadline… However, with Forest Hill behind it, our crowdfunder may finish ahead of schedule - showing the amazing community spirit of SE23.

Special thanks to our major donors so far:

• @anon5422159: £500 (part funded by all the businesses who promoted on this forum)
• @Anotherjohn: £150
• @Armadillo: £100 - and also contributing a very popular Walrus to the design
• @TheButcherySE23: £100
  (local butcher: http://thebutcheryltd.com)
• @RachaelDunlop: £100
• Adrian and Paul: £100

Thank you also to @Lionel, @Armadillo, @Pauline, @Michael and others who have given their time to the project so far (in addition to their donation)

Aside from monetary donations, if anyone can lend a hand cleaning the wall, or providing nearby parking for the artist, this will help the project hugely.

Our crowdfunder continues:

Please share widely.

Thanks all!

I think @Anotherjohn may be able to help me with a parking solution for @Lionel with unlimited time round the back of my shop on D Rd. This could work if materials are not too heavy to carry just down the Road

Since it looks like we’re almost there on the funding (well done everyone!) can you just reconfirm:
(i) does the crowdfund automatically stop accepting donations once the target is achieved?
(ii) does the £2500 amount include any buffer for annual upkeep and grafitti prevention (if not could the amount be increased to do so)?

Donated… and I think I have just pushed it over the minimum! Woo hoo…

You have!

Thanks to your donation and others, the project will now become a reality.

In just 75 hours, the SE23 community donated over £2,500 - an astonishing success!

The £2,500 does include a six-month period where @Lionel will fix any grafitti. The excess will be donated to the Forest Hill Society, which is a well-known local non-profit organisation. They have a fund for local projects, and are able to accept a small excess from this crowdfunder.

We’ve raised the money required for this project, and for logistical reasons we will try to avoid radically exceeding the target. It’s very straightforward to create new crowdfunders in future for further work. There have been some great suggestions of lighting, planters etc, but these will require further planning.

Fantastic news, so proud of those who have started, developed and got to this point and a massive amount of respect to those who have donated

WOW!!!

Special thanks to the following major donors who contributed today:

• @Londondrz: £100
• @Place_in_Print: £100
  (local design studio and online shop: http://www.placeinprint.com/)
• @BMSE23: £100
  (local estate agent: http://www.benjamin-matthews.co.uk/)
• @Bolgerp: £100

This is great! So fast to the target. I’m looking forward to painting when the weather is a bit warmer. Thank you to all involved and who donated.

Lionel, I’ll drop Ed at Network Rail an email in the morning to let him know we’re ready to go ahead & Cc you.

So looking forward to this mural!

And also pop by for a chat to work out parking for you, shouldn’t be a problem. I have traffic cones just incase

Thanks Pauline. Sounds like parking has been sorted out by Ross on here for me.

I’ll look out for your email.

Too late to the party it seems - well too late to donate!
Amazing work everyone…

Agreed, can everyone else please be a little less generous and a little less quick off the mark, I wanted to donate to this too!

Honestly, some people are so selfish in their generosity.

(and while I’m here and with a great deal more sincerity - Congrats all, very impressive!)

Don’t worry to those who missed out, you can donate to our next project:
“Welcome to fabulous Forest Hill, Lewisham”

In neon please.

I’m sure they’d do you a Forest Hill version!

Hell. I might just do that for my front room.

This looks great! Terrific work

Will there be any lights to illuminate it? It’s awfully gloomy under that bridge…

Others have suggested this too. Would certainly help make the sign visible. More of a logistical challenge than the painting itself, due to the electricity supply and ongoing cost - does anyone have experience organising such things in a municipal setting?

If someone can get a quote for the work and ongoing costs, I’m happy to kick off another crowdfunder to see if we can raise the necessary funds. May be something that the Forest Hill Society might want to get involved in?

The result of some googling is that we’d need:

• Some lights
• An electrician
• An unmetered connection

Costs for unmetered connections appear to be available here: https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/our-services/documents/EPN%20WRP%20UMC%20Guidance%20Notes%20&%20SoR%20Apr16%20DL%20v1.pdf

I presume though that network rail would have to agree to having lights screwed to their wall and indeed someone would confirm there’s no impact on road safety?

The Loughborough Junction Action Group are a little ahead of Forest Hill I think, and appear to have installed lighting under one of their seven bridges. Might be willing to pass on their experience/tips of dealing with Network Rail, planning, safety issues etc?

http://www.loughboroughjunction.org/projects/7-bridges-project/the-remaining-6-bridges

Could Sydenham be next in line for a mural? Join the conversation on SE26.life:

Fantastic to see how everything is going so far. I have one concern - under that bridge tends to get very wet on the Devonshire Road / Portakabin side. There’s often a damp patch on the wall and today the rain seemed to be running down.

Will this be likely to cause a problem for the mural?

Hi Dave, yes there is some damp/wet problems which is why the weather needs to warm up and the wall to dry out before painting. Most of these bridges I’ve painted are in poor repair which may add to the ease of permission being given to painting.

Er…

Yeah, while you’re about it, get 'em to fling a big heater up there!

There’s a gutter that runs across the top of the wall, and it’s unlikely to have been cleared for decades. When local volunteers clean the wall prior to painting, we ought to give the gutter a good sweep. This may help.

IRO the lighting. A decent solar solution would negate any need for mains power .

Meeting at the Dolphin next week to discuss

This is getting picked up on teh webz - just seen it on my FB feed

I enjoyed the bit about him refusing to paint them outside of SE

Great article. I enjoyed finding out a bit more about Lionel

Whilst looking at the Forest Hill Conservation map in regards to the inclusion/exclusion of The Sylvan Post - I have observed that the Forest Hill Conservation area has a portion that now extends beyond the bridge.

It would seem prudent to add LB Lewisham to our list of consultees for appropriate advice/permissions…

Great job SE23, could this be the first of many community led projects to improve the area.

Is there a picture of a proper scale mock up of this mural? I notice that the mock image was done over the picture of the Brockley mural. The SE23 bridge is much bigger in all directions.