Streets ahead

I was very happy this year, on returning to East Dulwich after four months away, to find that more than a few gable ends and tucked-away corners had been decorated with eye-catching street art.

Work by My Dog Sighs, in front of the designated
Street Art House, at 265 Lordship Lane

We’d had Stik in the neighbourhood last year – my friend Trish made him a cup of tea when she found him painting his stick people on the wall opposite her flat.

Stik 2012 piece, inspired by The Guardian Angel
by Marcantonia, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery

But this latest work seemed to involve at least a dozen different street artists. I recognised the styles and tags of some of the biggest movers and shakers of the spray-can world. I freelanced in Shoreditch for a spell, home to iconic street art works, such as ROA’s huge hedgehogs. And here he was, doing his thing in SE22. It seemed such an unlikely suburban setting.

ROA’s canine skeleton at the back of  265 Lordship Lane,
inspired by dogs in paintings at the gallery

Conor Harrington’s duellists, by the EDT,
inspired by violent themes in the gallery’s art

I discovered that the series had been commissioned by the Dulwich Picture Gallery in the summer, as part of a Baroque the Streets festival. The gallery worked with Stik in 2012 and wanted to make a bigger splash. So they persuaded a selection of up-for-it businesses and homeowners to donate the canvases, from empty walls to garage doors. One entire house just round the corner from me, at 265 Lordship Lane – due to be demolished but curiously still standing – was taken over, named the Street Art House, and painted to within an inch of its life.

A joint effort from Malarky & Mr Penfold, at 265 Lordship Lane

Italian-born RUN was inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s
Triumph of David at 265 Lordship Lane

Each artist was invited to take inspiration from a painting or work of art in the Dulwich Picture Gallery and create their own interpretation. The result is an outdoor gallery that can be enjoyed by anyone, giving my neighbourhood a bit of the edge it has lost in recent years.

Remi Rough & System’s Girl in a Window after the
Rembrandt painting in the gallery, opposite ED station

Happily the SE22 murals are all still in great shape. I did a walking tour recently, with my nephew Rory, who served as a useful perspective to the grand scale of some of these pieces.

Phlegm, from Sheffield, depicts a horn player
from detail in Poussin’s Triumph of David

Brazil’s Nunca created a tea-drinking Queen Bee,
representing colonialism, at The Plough

A piece by Broken Fingaz Crew,
in front of 265 Lordship Lane