Forest Hill Mural - Cleaning the wall

We’re making good progress with our plans for a Forest Hill Mural.

Now, some logistics:

Cleaning the wall

We’ll need to clean the underpass wall a week before painting commences. For other murals, local volunteers used hoses and brooms. In Catford, the wall was cleaned by a volunteer with a pressure washer.

Would you be willing to help out? Please reply here if so.

Parking for the artist [Arranged]

@Lionel will arrive in a van with his paints, ladders etc, and will need to park near the railway underpass.

[A forum member has kindly offered nearby parking]

Re parking, Stanstead Rd (turning left off S Circular at the Co-op) usually has available parking during the day which is free and within about 100m of the mural location.

I don’t own a pressure washer but am happy to give up some time to help clean the site up although as I work full time, it would depend on when the time is needed.

Excited to announce that @Lionel plans to start painting the mural on the weekend of 24th March (potentially starting on the 23rd).

We’ll need to get the wall cleaned before Lionel is able to start.

I’m going to head to the site this Saturday (17th March) at 10am to have a go at cleaning the wall. Thanks very much @applespider for the offer of help with cleaning the wall. Are you able to make it this Saturday? I’m free on Sunday too, if this is better for you. Anyone else able to join us?

I have a stepladder and will bring a broom and a bucket and a long hose - nearby garages may be kind enough to refill the bucket or supply running water for the hose. I’ll contact them shortly.

There is guttering above the wall which appears to be leaking water. My stepladder probably isn’t tall enough to get to this, so if anyone else has a taller ladder, please bring that along. Hopefully the leak is due to debris in the gutter which we can clear out.

Thanks, all! Please let us know if you’re able to make Saturday or Sunday.

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I think I’ll need to hire something like this to get the job done:

https://www.hss.com/hire/p/compact-pressure-washer-bowser

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It won’t require a constant water supply or electricity, and with the stepladder, I should be able to reach high enough.

Worth taking into consideration what health and safety measures will be needed too. Safe working area, safe passage for pedestrians so to avoid slips or “contamination”

Cones, tape bare minimum, and if anyone would need to walk into the road to pass… And so on.

Big old job there, wish you well getting it done.

Thanks for the tips - I have also had some kind and detailed advice from @anon51837532 via PM which is much appreciated.

I may well be able to avoid using a ladder - this will reduce risk significantly. I’ll probably head up one evening after work with a broom to see how much can be done using simple means.

In case I need to get the pressure washer and/or ladder involved, I’ve asked Lionel to mention this when speaking to Network Rail soon regarding the risk assessment for his painting work.

I can do a few hours on Saturday tho busy on Sunday. Meet you at 10?

Good stuff, sounds pretty well thought out. Look forward to seeing this piece finally appear.

Good luck to all playing their part.

Thanks very much for the offer! I’ll be in touch via PM.

Lionel has suggested a simpler cleaning approach using dry brushes. A pressure washer may create more work for us as it will strip the wall more deeply.

Sounds like a low-tech, low cost approach is the way forward - at least for our first try. I’ll bring a broom and stepladder.

Living in a flat, I don’t have a decent garden broom.

Anyone else got a garden broom or two around? Guess two better than one for the lower levels at least?

I’m slightly surprised that no-one else has volunteered to help yet. It would be great (and quicker/easier/more fun) if we could get a real community effort into it with 3 or 4 others.

I would like to help but I’ll be our of town on that day.
Was going to offer to chip in on the washer but I see you are going manual!
Happy to grab a broom or two for volunteers…

I’m most likely working on Saturday but if I’m not, I’ll definitely come to help and pick up a broom from Shannon’s.

Thanks @ametzelaar - I’ll let you know if the plans change.

I can chip in couple of hours Saturday morning but in similar position as live in flat don’t have brooms etc. If someone else can provide extra then perfect.

Super! I might contact a certain local garden centre to see if they’d be kind enough to lend us one or two brooms. Thanks also to @ForestHillNick for the offer

I can certainly lend a brush and possibly some time although I might be busy 10am - 12 noon

I’m happy to drop the brush off and then join after 12

Thanks Liam, hope to see you there.

Shannon’s Garden Centre have very kindly offered to lend us three brooms. I’ll pop in and pick them up on Saturday morning.

Love Shannons…
Good luck with the cleaning!

We’d love to help with this too. I have a simple electric power washer (might be good if not too powerful) - any ideas where to get water and power from? I might arrive with a broom first and see how it goes.

Another thought, as I cycled through this afternoon… there some graffiti there that needs to come off and also it will look weird if the other side stays dirty… are we doing both sides?

Thanks for the kind offer. I think it may be hard to get water and electricity on the site. Also, Lionel has asked that we try brushes first as this may be sufficient. Please do bring a broom.

I was just going to do the mural wall, but perhaps if we get it done quickly and people want to burn a few more calories, we could do the other side too.

@anon30031319 posted this on the ULEZ thread - “Saw this too, wonder how long before they issue face masks for people in the worst of it.”

Acted as a reminder - please encourage volunteers to wear overalls (or at least their oldest clothes) and a face-mask. It will get mucky and dusty.

Good luck everyone.

Lionel will inspect the site tomorrow or Saturday and mark out the boundary of the artwork.

A passer-by mentioned that the wall is still quite wet and the gutters are leaking.

I’m going to contact Network Rail to see what our options are regarding fixing / clearing the guttering.

Just noticed this latest piece from Lionel… Very nice.
Check out @lionel_stanhope’s Tweet:

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There is a forecast for snow this weekend so are any alternate plans needed?

Do we assume we are going ahead and make a final call on here around 9am on Sat?

Good call @applespider.

@Foresthillnick, @ametzelaar, @SGC, @Liam_Gilgar and @clausy - please check here on Saturday morning as we may need to postpone if the conditions aren’t right, or if Lionel finds that the wall needs some work to fix the guttering and/or leaks.

At least no-one’s going to sweat if it’s 2 degrees outside

Also - there’s graffiti on the wall, we’ll need something to remove it - is there a plan for that?

I’d suggest grabbing a photo, and posting on FixMyStreet.com

The council’s anti-graffiti team is excellent - they often fix the graffiti on the same day.

In the post on FixMyStreet, perhaps also mention that the mural is due to happen, so if they’re able to clean the wall beyond the graffiti, that would make a massive difference!

Ha, instead of ranting online, I’m going to go and do this right now. Good idea

I reported some graffiti yesterday morning elsewhere in Forest Hill and was rather shocked to find it painted over yesterday evening!

Good luck with the work this weekend and don’t let the weather put you off - there won’t be snow under the bridge. Sorry I’m not available to help.

Done
https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/1247330

p.s. Chris - ha - nice try roping the council in to clean the whole wall

If they do clean the wall, I promise never to complain about council tax ever again!

Well, they’ve picked it up already!

http://lovelewisham.com/Home/Details/cc80b37b-a0e0-4bf9-bfd5-aae23d7da483

Impressive.

Excellent!

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@Lionel just marked out the boundaries of the artwork on the wall this morning. Hopefully the council won’t remove his markings when they remove the tags!

Lionel’s artwork boundary markings:

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Worth replicating the marks lower down, or on the pavement?

The amount of graffiti popping up again now, I have fears for the longevity of the mural. Here’s hoping it doesn’t become a target.

Hope the clean goes well. Cant wait to see the end result.

I have a vague memory of us discussing during the planning stages that the mural would have anti-graffiti paint or coating or something? Or is that just my imagination? It would certainly seem worth protecting the finished mural from graffiti if we can?

So are we really doing this today? 8am and it’s snowing… I don’t mind, I just don’t want to be the only one who shows up standing under the railway bridge with a broom looking like Billy no-mates.

Morning @clausy. Yes - @Liz_Hall and I will head over this morning and aim to be there for 10am. We’ll go via Shannon’s and pick up some brooms. See you there!

OK. I’ll layer up, dig out the old cycling gloves and see you down there.

I presume you don’t need my broom now? I can always dash home to grab it if needed. I’ll try and join you early afternoon if you’re still going

Hi @Liam_Gilgar - I think we will be okay for brooms but thank you for the kind offer.

Before

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After

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The wall looks drier up the top than yesterday? Good news. Thanks to all that are out this morning.

Yes - the wall was pretty dry today

I don’t think any of the artwork area was wet, although it was quite dusty and encrusted with tough deposits.

The before / after shots don’t quite do it justice, but with @applespider, @sgc, @clausy and @Liz_Hall on it, we cleared plenty of debris from the wall and hopefully made a difference for next week’s painting. Thanks to all of you for giving up your Saturday mornings and braving the weather.

From this angle, the effect of the scrubbing is more obvious:

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Big thanks to Shannon’s Garden Centre for the loaned brooms.

Great job. Looked much cleaner when I passed by at noon.

Now if you can just over my way on Sunderland Rd…

Well done folks - and thank you! Can’t wait to see it take shape.

Could only come by at 2pm and you were all done… Great work!

Sorry I couldn’t make it today - I was called into work. Looks like a great job, hope the weather was on your side!

Fun morning, nice to meet everyone, thanks for the coffee Chris!

Can’t wait to see this go up. Yes it doesn’t look much different, but a lot of brick-dust/mold/diesel particulates and generally not nice things came off the wall and should make it easier to paint!

Yes, thank you for the coffee. And was great to meet a few others and find out more about the Book Club too.

Under the bridge was definitely more sheltered and we soon warmed up as we got going. By the time we finished, there was very little coming off the wall so fingers crossed, it will help the paint last longer.

Was good to have a few passing pedestrians stop to ask what we were doing too.

Thanks everyone that helped with this, sorry I couldn’t help.

Brilliant job

@clausy if that is who I think it is from the pics (your lovely son) in these pics. Please let me know as he’ll have a free bag of sweets from me for that, definitely deserves them if it’s him and pretty sure it is.

P

Thanks @Pauline, nope no child labour. Must be me looking young, but we appreciate the offer anyway