Spoilt artwork outside Sylvan Post on Dartmouth Road

Anyone know what happened to the beautiful artwork of the the girl and the birds outside Sylvan Post? It now has a large white patch across it, followed by grafitti added at the top of the piece a few days later. Today we noticed that the white areas had actually grown. It’s not clear if this is an attempt to cover up some previous vandalism - or if it’s vandalism itself. Whatever the case, it was a beautiful piece of art on our newly-freshened up Dartmouth Road and it’s heartbreaking to see such wanton distruction going on amidst attempts to create a more enjoyable Dartmouth Road and Forest HIll for all. Can anyone shed any light, or figure out how we get this fixed? See pic attached.

I’ll pay for the white paint to cover it! It was looking very tatty beforehand, now it makes Forest Hill look like some kind of crack ghetto.

I loved it and would like to see it restored.

White paint to cover it? Sure, just a giant whiteboard for more tagging. Personally, I think a wide range of imaginative murals in the area is to be encouraged. After all, we have more than a few artists around the area.

What a shame. Was rather proud of that.

Hope it’s fixed soon

Does anyone remember who did the original art work? Perhaps they can be persuaded to do a repair.

I’ll check with Paul that owns the building & ask if it’s possible

Or time for a change.

Perhaps an opportunity for the next crowd-funded commission?

If it is time for a change I have a friend that does amazing big wall murals, he’s not local but does commissions all over the country.
Horrible to see this one has been spoiled.

Agree. The oaf who ‘white-painted’ it has obviously no sense of style or ability. maybe either contact the original artist or have a new mural in its place

Or about pay for an artist to create a new mural!

There is a fair amount of tagging and graffiti still visible - I wonder if the white paint was used to cover something potentially offensive? Otherwise it seems like an odd way to deface a mural. Vandals don’t often patrol the streets with large buckets of white paint and rollers.

How about a nice bright Artista piece.

Not sure about Spongebob Squarepants style.

My vote would go to Dale Grimshaw or Mr Cenz for this wall.

SE26.life has a wiki topic for local street artists with examples of their work:

How about starting a new thread to build up a portfolio of potential artists for any new projects going forwards? I imagine it will be harder to select an artist for a general mural based on public opinion than it was for the Forest Hill sign. Tastes will naturally differ.

There is a great opportunity on the wall outside party power for a new painting/mural. Am sure the white outet one could be repaired.

Good idea. How about asking the current artist to repair it and also comission something for the adjacent wall?

I’d prefer to build on the existing wiki topic of artists as opposed to starting a new one - any SE26.life member can edit that page and add new local artists.

First step towards new artwork would be to speak to the owner of the building (I think it’s 30A Dartmouth Road) to see what their opinion would be on new work, and to get to know their design preferences.

Does anyone know who owns this lovely building?

Maybe once we’ve got a definitive list of local artists and been in touch with the property owner, we can start reaching out the artists to see who’d be willing to put forward a design?

But it’s not on this forum.

I’d really like to auto-sync certain topics across the “dot life” forums but at the moment that’s not possible

If we have a poll of design choices for this wall in Forest Hill, we’d obviously want to do it on this forum.

But the list of artists is something that SE26.life has taken the lead on. It’s only a couple of clicks to sign up to SE26.life.

Nice try, Chris. But no, I don’t want to sign up to another of your suite of forums. Discussion of artists for SE23 should reside in this forum, even if it does duplicate information from elsewhere. Linking to the SE26 wiki makes sense but I personally thinking sending people back and forth between two graphically identical forums to add information to that wiki and then discuss that information here is a recipe for confusion.

I believe that the building was previously a Lloyds branch, before my time in SE23. I believe the owner has a workshop there and runs courses inside. Lovely chap. If you buzz the door then someone is often there.

Would it not be possible to retain and repair this artwork whilst commisioning a new one to cover the wall outside paddy power?.. With permission could our Havelock Walk or Louise House artists use the Paddy Power wall and other free space as an advertising canvas for their work?. It would be wonderful to celebrate the artistic talent Forest Hill has to offer.

It was the Midland Bank previously.

I’ve just spotted Pauline’s message:

Looks like she’s on it!

Down at Havelock Walk Supermundane and Beep Studios create some large wall art…

Do love a bit of bold and bright.

+1 for this. It’s crying out for a decent pic on there. ESP since it’s very ugly ATM. I can see that that someone semi famous had made a start already (Nathan)

I’d be sad to lose our Faux Banksy telephone from the Paddy Power wall.

Maybe we should ask Rob or Ed to do something for D Rd?

Happy to email them and ask or maybe @LizAtkin would like to do something that creates awareness for compulsive skin picking disorder, maybe a large version of her charcoal art she gives away to train commuters in London & beyond

Last time I suggested about paintings on that wall by Paddy power there was mentioned an issue about consent. Anyone know who owns it?

The Banksy type phone could be incorporated…can enquiries be made of the restaurant/flat the other side of the wall?

That’s always a problem we come across sadly, if it was up to me I’d just go ahead and do it, without having thioughts about consequences, but thankfully I always have @Michael to run my ideas by to stop me getting in trouble

I value his opinions strongly & he keeps me on track with my crazy ideas of what will or won’t work for FH.

This is why we both work so well together

So where did you get to Pauline ? Did you find out the owners ?

I’m on the case!, and I know the owner.

So just a case of dropping by for a chat.

I’ll pop by tomorrow to chat with Paul

Great stuff.

Me too, I love that piece of art

I love the current painting next to sylvan post and hope it gets restored

Got sidetracked by another thread tonight.

But just want to report back that I spoke to Paul , the owner of this building and he is contacting the original artist to see if he wants to salvage this art work.

If not he is willing for me to ask if anyone wants to redo a piece of art on this space - cover & redo

Well done Pauline, you are a star.

I’d love a new piece. This could be Forest Hill’s own 4th plinth project.

Great work Pauline. Hopefully keep that piece and have a brand new one on that much more messy wall opposite and outside Party Power.

Great stuff ! Any word on the other side ?

Someone started work painting the building the ruined mural is on today…will it survive at all??

Gone.

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We spoke to the painter when he was painting over what was left. He told us there are no plans to replace the mural with something new due to the problems with vandalism/tagging.

I had a look at the art work on the other side of this building on the way past and noticed it seems intact and untagged.

Blank canvas for tags now

Maybe now is the time to install or repair the cctv catch any taggers and the dodgy car parkers 2 birds etc.

Since the artwork in question is now gone, this topic is closed to avoid confusion later on.

Please start a new topic if there are new developments on this wall.

You can reply as a new linked topic to any points raised in this topic.