LONDON MURAL FESTIVAL PART 9

 London Mural Festival part 9

Kidbrooke Square:
     South London artists Shine and Quest, Skore, Crok, Tase, Anoe, Omus, Dahko, Dskus, Farz, Noys and Astek were invited to spend a few days decorating the hoardings around a new development in Kidbrooke Square, handily adjacent to Kidbrooke Station.
     Deciphering the graphics to identify each artist's contribution is tricky, but I've had a go ....

Farz

Shine and Quest?

Dskus, Noys?

Astek

Anoe, Dahko, Omus

Blackheath:

Philth

     Phill Blake (aka Philth) rivals Zabou for realistic portrait murals. But he also does nice floral patterns, this one features in several of his works.

 

Wedo Goás

     Edgar Goás Blanco was born in 1990 in Galicia, Spain. His contribution celebrates the Windrush Generation.

North Woolwich:

     Rosie Wood's mural on North Woolwich Road is inspired by technology, reflecting the fact it was commissioned in memory of Ada Infrastructure executive Ian Blakeman. Ada Infrastructure, named after computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, is part of a consortium developing one of London's data centre campuses on this site.

     Behind, on the opposite bank of the Thames, can be seen the top of the O2 Arena with the cable car over the river in the foreground. The towers of Canary Wharf are in the distance.

     Next door is the iconic Lyle's Golden Syrup Refinery. Golden Syrup, a by-product of sugar refinement, was first marketed commercially by Abram Lyle in 1885 as a substitute for honey.

      According to the Guinness Book of Records, the familiar tin is the world's oldest branding and packaging.

      The image is of a swarm of bees hovering above the rotting carcass of a lion. The advertising legend "Out of the strong came forth sweetness", is a biblical quote attributed to Samson.

     Golden Syrup contains no honey - but that's not going to stop me indulging in some bee-related fun facts:

     Given they had a choice of honeycomb design bees cleverly rejected triangles and squares and opted for hexagons which use less wax.

     Honey has no sell by date, although 'best by' is usually found on jars. Some honey found in the pyramids is still edible after 3,000 years.

     The old belief that bees are technically unable to fly was based on the assumption their wings were rigid. But they twist and rotate, enabling them to not only fly but also carry honey payloads.

     Honey bees will tap about two million flowers and fly 50,000 miles (twice round the earth) to make one pound (454 g) of honey.

     When faced with a shortage of pollen, bumble bees will damage plant leaves by eating them in order to make the plant flower earlier – sometimes as much as a month before. Scientists have tried to replicate this by damaging plants but the best they could manage was five days earlier.

      Two more murals, spotted near where I live in Wanstead. They are not part of the London Mural Festival ....

Charlie Brown's Roundabout, Woodford:

     You might expect to see a rendition of the Peanuts character at Charlie Brown's Roundabout. But it the intersection is named after the landlord of a pub that once stood here. The pub was actually called The Roundabout. Ironically, it was demolished when the roundabout was enlarged. And I guess it didn't make sense to call it the Roundabout Roundabout.

     There are plenty of other road junctions in the UK which retained the names of long-forgotten local businesses - Staples Corner springs to mind. But the mattress factory closed in 1986. And I don't recall ever seeing anyone hanging around Gallows Corner.

Manor Park:

     This is rather nice, but I don't know much about it. I'm guessing it's part of the initiative by Newham Council to encourage and commision street art.