CHELMSFORD STREET ART

 

CHELMSFORD STREET ART

    Concrete Canvas 2026 was a street art festival that took place in Chelmsford in May. Given Chelmsford is less than an hour from Wanstead by car, the weather was unusually good, and they have a Wetherspoons, a day out with my camera was inevitable. This is what I found - quite easily ...
      
Roo                                                                         VaneMG
   
                                                                              Nic Mac illustration
   

                                               L'envol Tris                             Lindsey Thompson
 
                                                       Hayley Wells
      Sarah Wenman                             Juliet Townsend
For Every Tommy (woven willow) - Deb Hart 
In Flanders fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
                                                                John McCrae
Lest We Forget


Obey Giant Shepard Fairey
My Love Is Chromatic

                                                                                      The Dog's Bollard Nick Herne
Nick photographed and painted nineteen dogs as they passed his bollard.
Snub 23
lily._does._arts                                                                                   
Run DMB
         John Johnson (Architect)     Stonebridge (1784) over the River Can, designed by John Johnson
Edgeworks                                                                                          
Ewok Logray Nik Vaughn
Alex Face                                                        D*Face
 
The London Police
 
Chelmsford Music Heritage Morcky                                                                          
Gnasher
SpraySaint
Glitch Portraits Brave1                 
 Woskerski (2024)                                
Ballerina MasVandal
                Hide James Mackenzie                            You Are Not Alone Sky High 


                    Brave Arts                                                        Propa Grinches
Brave Arts
 
               Flipping Zombies                                                     Streets_of_Lily

        Riverside Mural Dan Kitchener                                    Nathan Bowen Art      
Paws for Thought Gnasher
Heads they win, tails we lose Flipping Zombies
Geo Jam                                                                               
Grayson Perry Brave1
     Artist (and drag artist) Grayson Perry was born in Chelmsford. His unique House for Essex (in Wrabness) was designed in collaboration with FAT Architecture (Fashion, Architecture and Taste). It sleeps four and you can rent it for around £500 per night ...


Brave Arts                                                   Brave Arts
Brave Arts  


    

    

    

 



                                                                                   Brave Arts


Brave1                                                                                             

Brave Arts
         7th Pencil                                    Chelmsford Eye My Dog Sighs
Gold Geese Brave Arts
             Healing Peachzz                                                     MasVandal                          

 
Elno                                                                       Brave1        
In A Rush Zabou

Chelmsford - The Birthplace of Radio

Marconi Mural Victoria Button & Nicholas Haydon
    Guglielmo Marconi  was an Italian engineer largely credited with inventing radio. In 1897 he established the world's first wireless factory in Chelmsford. This mural references how over 700 lives were saved thanks to distress signals sent by Marconi wireless operators aboard The Titanic.
      Stephen Hicklin's bronze statue of Marconi stands in Marconi Square - with a microphone in one hand and a lightning bolt transmitted from the other. His Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company was established in Chelmsford in 1897 and traded until 2006. In 1909 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".
    The blue plaque can be found outside the Saracens Head Hotel, where Marconi stayed when visiting his factory between 1912 and 1928. 
    Wetherspoons Ivory Peg stands on the site that, from 1897 until 1912, was Marconi's first wireless factory before moving to larger premises. It's rather surprising the pub is not named after the inventor - maybe because the Marconi Company is trademarked. Instead, the Ivory Peg is named rather obtusely after a medieval troubadour's ivory tuning peg, unearthed here during building work. 

Chelmsford Cathedral
    
    The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd is sometimes claimed to be England's smallest Anglican cathedral. But Derby Cathedral is actually a tad smaller. Anyhow, the country's second-smallest cathedral is still not to be sniffed at - and even our most agile street artists would struggle to improve Sir Ninian Comper's ceiling.
Graffiti on the Medici Chapel (c. 1520s) Michelangelo
A graffiti artist called Michelangelo was also good at painting ceilings.

Concrete Canvas 2026 walking map ....
PDF download of map here.

    The walk is around three miles. I didn't follow it religiously as it only includes the murals that appeared in 2026. So I took a few detours and backtracks to find some earlier works, walking nine miles altogether. 

      The Ivory Peg is close to 21 on the map. After morning coffee and a bacon sarnie, I swept the area to the east of the pub before noon. Then, fortified by a jacket potato and a pint of Ruddles, I polished off the remainder, finishing at the Market Hall (19) where I'd parked my car - and where I made the unexpected discovery of a new Zabou mural. I've added it to my gallery of her work.


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