The glorious meadows of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park seem an unlikely spot for street art to take hold but that’s exactly what’s happened over the past year.
Initially started last year, the railway arches which form one of the southern boundaries of the park have been enhanced with a number of different murals all representing animals or birds which are threatened in terms of their habitat or in danger of extinction.
Now, over the past few months, the remaining archways have been filled in with works from Aspire, Curtis Hylton, Matt Shapira and Core246. It means that the whole stretch of railway along Ackroyd Drive to the south of the park is now full of murals by some of the very best environmental artists around.
Working with the Cemetery Park have been the likes of ‘Human Nature‘ for the first tranche and now with the latest group of murals, ‘Trapped in Zone One‘ have taken the mantle. These are art agencies who have worked to commission the artists and arrange for the murals to take shape.
The murals also managed to catch the eye of the judges as part of the inaugural ‘Artkickers‘ awards held in East London. The ‘community superhero’ award at the event was given to the collective behind the murals led by Kenneth Greenaway from the park and from Trapped in Zone One’s Bablu Miah.
According to the ‘Trapped in Zone One’ facebook page “The reason why myself and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park work together is for the Tower Hamlets Community to enjoy and appreciate urban art, and that’s exactly what we’re experiencing as part of this nature inspired mural project and I am overwhelmed by the response from the locals.”
So good news indeed for urban art in the East End of London which is outside of the main hubs of Shoreditch and Brick Lane. There will be more murals coming so keep an eye out on the arches of Ackroyd Drive.
The murals at the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park were visited and photographed on Sunday 2 April 2017. Further articles featuring the murals of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park can be found here and here.
Ackroyd Drive Arches Murals Galleries
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