Joe Rashbrook’s mural at East Croydon is due to be formally ‘unveiled’ this afternoon
A new, large-scale mural is due to be unveiled later today, the latest effort to clean-up the town centre’s somewhat run-down image.
Artist Joe Rashbrook applying the finishing touches to his work
The “Welcome to East Croydon” mural runs almost the full length of the road bridge opposite the usually busy railway station.
It has taken artist Joe Rashbrook nearly a month to complete, and is ready just in time for the latest stage of the unwinding of coronavirus lockdown next week.
Commissioned by the council and funded by Thameslink rail operators, the formal “unveiling” (though it would be hard to have enough drapery to keep the mural completely under wraps) is taking place this afternoon and will be attended by the station manager and the Mayor of Croydon.
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Useful that it says ‘Croydon’, just in case anyhone thinks they’ve arrived in hell. In my day the trip from East Croydon to the town centre was known as the Walk of Shame
we all might be ashamed walking around croydon at the moment i think it does look brilliant on a section of dreary would rather see this type of artwork all over the empty shop fronts then anything else we hear and read about croydon at least its a step forwards its a shame we cant get the ones that caused our town to go this way that resigned or left just before it happened to spray paint has a community service sentence to spray some more facade shop fronts dressed as clowns
More money wasted that the council and tfl dont have
Except neither the council nor TfL is paying for it. If you could get someone to read the article to you, you would discover that it is being paid for by Thameslink, the railway operators. But thanks for your interest.
Bright and cheery – lovely 🙂
This bridge parapet was previously not exactly a thing of beauty. The high fence seems to have been fitted some time since I looked at this side of the bridge. No doubt to stop a deluge of coke cans thrown away by moronic litter louts, from falling on trains.
The new mural has given the location a sense of place, and a bold visual hit of bright colour, albeit that the mauve sky is maybe a tad apocalyptic. A nod perhaps to the vibe of the Covid plague ?
I wonder if public artist muralists were at work after the Great Plague and Great Fire of London? I can see now in my mind’s eye, the possible hoardings around the site of the new St Pauls. Big red sky, burning Old St P’s silhouetted. Plague rats running away. Pudding makers and residents in their night-gowns fleeing from the flames. Buildings being pulled down by teams of people in hoodies.
Croydon and its constituent areas has / have several murals. They do provide colour, mental stimulation, and food for thought in a town that — as Michael Sales says in his comment above– is currently rather drab. I am sure that the money they cost is in most cases well worth it.
Interestingly, big advertising billboards fulfill some similar positive role in brightening up the drabness of parts of town. Just so sad that we are no longer treated to views of the Marlboro Cowboy and his horse standing atop some mountain crag with a panoramic view of the Rockies or Arizona desert. Sure did brighten up the Mitcham Road.
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Ah, murals. Looks like Croydon is next to be hit by the unrelenting wave of gentrification.
You’re about a decade late on the gentrification gig in Croydon
I think Croydon needs a bit of colour to be honest. It’s dead and dreary near the station and this brightens it up! Love it.
Let’s hope that in another decade we will all be gentry. Nice greeny-bluey-grey front doors, and nice front gardens with real plants and woven willow wheely bin screens, instead of concrete deserts. Skinny or body-positive “larger latte” coffees all round instead of greasy spoon caffs. Positive vibe, Inside Croydon, postitive vibe.
I would be happy with a few more cafes, a few fewer pound shops, a many fewer bookies, a few fewer 9 flat developments (stuck record me) and a few more viable businesses like hardware stores and nice food shops and clothes shops…. I like farrow and ball front doors cos that means money and people that care about their front doors…. and they can afford to pay for lattes. They also like a bacon bap with red sauce, so do I. Croydon needs people in charge that care about tenants and owner occupiers and business. Who are those people?! A mural is not much help however…..Shorditch we are not without the creatives, the cafes and the money.