Continuing to reveal the hidden stories of Chatham through public art, this week we saw our fourth mural painted.

Acclaimed artist Curtis Hylton was commissioned by Arches Local to respond to a list of local stories, and took inspiration from the story of the ‘Chatham Elephant’.

In 1913, Sydney Turner, a Luton resident, made a remarkable discovery in Upnor: the bones of the Chatham Elephant. These belonged to a straight-tusked elephant, an ancient species dating back approximately 400,000 years, with a height of nearly 4 metres and weighing around 10 tonnes. Excavations took place in 1915, revealing what is considered to be the largest elephant species ever found in Britain. Today, London’s Natural History Museum is home to Turner’s extraordinary findings.

Located on Newnham Street, this mural wouldn’t have been possible without the support of mhs homes, the UK’s largest independent landlord, who kindly donated their wall.

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

Continuing to reveal the hidden stories of Chatham, this week we achieved a hat-trick with our third mural painted.

Renowned artist Sophie Mess was commissioned by Arches Local to respond to a list of local stories, and took inspiration from the incredible life of Anne Pratt (1806-1893).

Living with her sister off Luton Road for some years, Anne found solace in drawing due to poor health and an injured knee.

Little did she know, her passion would elevate her to become one of the best-known botanical illustrators of the Victorian age. Publishing more than 20 books, Queen Victoria herself requested copies of her works.

Inspired by Anne’s bold life choices, and in Sophie Mess’ contemporary style, she contrasts the word ‘imagine’ with the flowers Anne would have painted.

Located on Newnham Street, this mural wouldn’t have been possible without the support of mhs homes, the UK’s largest independent landlord, who kindly donated their wall.

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

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!

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!