Waterloo Sunset
A mural 27 months in the making! Artmongers’s debut in central London is the result of a long and complex journey. One that required a considerable amount of trust, community support and a thorough understanding of the participatory mural process.
Patricio first contacted Network Rail regarding the use of this wall in May 2022, with one of our strategic aims in mind, to bring more of our artwork into central London. In response, Network Rail offered us two walls!
On the first we produced a new version of the ‘wind up key’ a playful starter mural that acted as a taster of our talents.
On this second more prominent wall, our ambition was to produce a fully fledged participatory mural, one that could speak to the thousands of commuters that march through this space daily.
This being one of our first artistic interventions in Waterloo, we were intentional about integrating and uplifting the host neighbourhood. Gaining support from the local community would be vital throughout the entire design and production process.
We set out knocking on doors and were lucky enough to meet the chairman of LERA (Lambeth Estate Residents Association), an important voice for the local area and its historic Roupell Street conservation area, used for many famous film and TV shoots. LERA advised that getting big things done here can be difficult and a lot of people would need to be convinced that this is a good idea.
We were then introduced to the chair of Southbank & Waterloo Neighbours who invited us to present our project on the tail of one of their meetings where the new masterplan for the whole Waterloo Area was being presented. This made our idea of painting one wall look pretty doable in comparison!
Our aim was to give voice to groups that are traditionally marginalised from having a positive impact on the streetscape, like young men and women from less privileged backgrounds.
Paul from LERA who helped us along the way from the very beginning.
Local developer Ben Bourne, was the first outside investor to the project and made the participatory design process possible. St Johns at Waterloo offered their crypt as a venue space and we quickly began outreach to local community groups.
We connected with young men from the local secondary school, London Nautical and young women from Coin Street Community Builders. We wanted to give them a way to amplify their voices within their local area, as well as a feeling of creative agency throughout the design process.
Both groups of young people agreed that the existing associations with this space were overwhelmingly negative. Nearly all participants said this was somewhere they feared being mugged! What then could regenerate this scary spot?
Joao Simoes Brown, the only local person who committed to the painting process. Was great to have her in our team!
As a group, we worked on each other's ideas in a process called Copylefting. Gradually, three distinct concepts emerged and Artmongers developed them into fully fledged digital sketches. These were put to a public vote of which 125 people shared their opinions.
With 60% of the vote for the winning design was by far Waterloo Sunset, with only 9% of people expressing no desire for a mural. Pretty convincing figures!
Young men from London Nautical inspect the paintwork!
The winning design was inspired by a drawing by one of the boys from London Nautical- originally starting as a street perspective, the concept morphed into re-imagining of the bridge structure itself.
The warped lines create an industrial-like structure across a dream-like sunset scape. The work responds to and addresses its immediate environment. Sharing a colour palette with the bridge, bringing down its enormous visual weight and opening a portal through the wall. It opens dialogue with other large structures in the vicinity with the dramatic columns.
Once the design choice was finalised, the next hunt for funding began. Throughout the whole production process, it was never clear how or when the next funding opportunity may arise, but we just had to keep trusting.
Eventually, we encouraged investments of £1500 each from LERA and Ben Bourne, with a further £500 from Network Rail to bring the design into reality. Assisted by LSOM students and one lovely local volunteer, the mural took 8 consecutive days to paint.
The mural offers the viewer the possibility of seeing through the wall and into a fictional space during the magic hour of sunset. Scattered figures allow for some conjecture of what is actually going on.
It could be interpreted many ways, a homage to the original marsh landscape of the area, a surreal potential future or maybe a nostalgic nod to the famous song Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks.
As always, it is up to the viewer to find their own meaning and curiosity in the work.
