Asquith Mural

Asquith Xavier Mural

Building on our work to celebrate the hidden stories of this corner of Chatham, our latest mural has been painted on Hare Street.

Arches Local commissioned renowned artist Voyder to respond to a list of local stories and, as can be seen, he chose the extraordinary story of Asquith Xavier.

Asquith played an important role in the campaign for racial equality in the workplace.

He was born in Dominica and moved to England in 1958 as part of the Windrush generation, invited from the Caribbean to help rebuild post-war Britain.

He joined British Railways as a guard at London’s Marylebone station in 1966. With the closure of the Marylebone main line, Asquith applied for a transfer to Euston station but was rejected due to a ‘whites-only’ recruitment policy, which excluded black people from customer-facing roles.

Asquith fought this decision and eventually became the first non-white guard at Euston station, marking a pivotal moment for this country.

His strength and determination also influenced changes to the law, which made the refusal of housing, employment or public services to people based on their ethnic background illegal.

Asquith lived on Grove Road from 1972 to 1980 when he sadly passed away.

If you have a wall or a local story you’d like to be considered for future murals, please get in touch!


🥬 Cabbage Mural

Cabbage Mural

In February a member of our Big Local Partnership expressed an interest in seeing more public art across our area, and yesterday we finalised a mural as the first step in that journey. 

Arches Local commissioned renowned artist WOSKerski (Dawid) to artistically respond to a list of local stories and, as can be seen, he chose to respond to the story of Cabbage Island.

Little is known about the exact origin and boundary of Cabbage Island, but it represents Luton’s historic role as an agricultural area, predominantly growing cabbages. The term was repopularised in 2017 by Icon Theatre in their efforts to celebrate the hidden history of Luton. 

Creative licence was key from the outset and as such Dawid portrayed the story of Cabbage Island in a unique way by painting a cabbage that returned to Luton along with a team of investigators establishing what exactly happened.

Whilst ​​we were sheltering from Storm Ciaran, Dawid ran a workshop at Luton Primary School, where he outlined his career as an artist and gave the children a painting challenge of their own. As a parting gift to the school, Dawid painted one of his famous pieces, a fried egg.

If you have a wall or a local story you’d like to be considered in future murals, please get in touch!


🎨 October Fit & Fed

October Fit & Fed

Despite the never ending rain, there were smiles all around for 54 young people that joined us each day this October half term.

A special thanks to our regular partners Nucleus ArtsOlympia BoxingSport On Your Doorstep, and to Mrs Bakers Medway Theatre Company for the extracurricular activities they provided.


⛵ Aboard the Edith May

Aboard the Edith May

We were delighted to be invited on the Thames sailing barge Edith May with some of our partnership members, their friends and family.

All within an hour, we explored the history of Thames barges, how to operate the vessel and began sailing towards the Historic Dockyard Chatham.

Thank you to Medway Plus for the invitation and to Tiller & Wheel for being accommodating and insightful hosts.

To find out more about Tiller & Wheel and their efforts to preserve the surviving fleet of East Coast heritage craft see here: https://tillerandwheel.com/.


💚 Silver Sunday

Silver Sunday celebrations

On Sunday the 1st of October we held our annual Silver Sunday celebration at Pembroke Court in Chatham. Silver Sunday is the national day of celebration for older people and provides an opportunity  to connect with their local communities and the generations around them.


🌱 Summer Fit & Fed 2023

Summer Fit & Fed 2023

You guessed it, throughout August we held our summer Fit & Fed programme thanks to the support of Medway Go. This time around we ran for four days, Monday to Thursday, for 4 weeks of the summer break.

Despite the unpredictable weather, we averaged 70 young people each day that were to be immersed in a world of physical and creative activities provided by our regular partners Nucleus ArtsOlympia BoxingSport On Your Doorstep, Street Games, etc.

Wild foods expert Miles Irving joined us for a weekly foraging activity and Electric Medway & Mrs Bakers Medway Theatre Company combined forces to deliver a singing and scanning workshop too!


Fit & Fed Summer 2022 ⛹️

Thanks to our partners and Medway Go, our Fit & Fed programme this summer was a huge success and one of our busiest ever! Our four weeks were jam packed with everything from paddle boarding to US Open-style tennis competition and even cake decorating for local young people. Read more


Fit and Fed back from Lockdown!!

#FitandFed returned from the Lockdown 3 imposed break during the #Easter 2021 half term holidays over 6 days during the 2 weeks. Which included a variety of Young people of different ages lots of positive interactions and healthy lunches served.

We got up to all sorts including games of Football, DodgeBall, Tennis, Basketball and potting vegetable plants kindly donated by the an SIREE EU Interreg Project

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