Easton Leisure Centre’s Big Tidy
Easton Leisure Centre cleans up lovely!
To celebrate 12 months of the Big Tidy bringing the sparkle back to Bristol, we gave a lane alongside Easton Leisure Centre a Big Tidy! Working with local artist Jenny Simmons, we painted a bright and colourful mural on the wall of Easton Leisure Centre to deter tagging and brighten up the public footpath.
Residents commented that the newly painted wall was brightening their day and made the footpath feel friendlier. They also said it was a huge improvement on the previously heavily tagged walls.
Huge thanks go to all the volunteers who support Easton Leisure Centre’s Big Tidy. Special thanks to artists Jenny Simmons and Beth Breeden, Noel Hickman from Easton Leisure Centre, and Mayor Marvin Rees.
The mural covers years of tagging and encourages everyone to help keep the much-used footpath clean, safe and welcoming. This 'before' photo shows just how badly tagged the building had become.
Mayor Marvin Rees joined the painting crew on Monday evening, and as the tallest volunteer was quickly put to work painting the top edge of the mural.
A word from Mayor Marvin Rees
Speaking to the volunteer crew, the Mayor said:
“I launched the Big Tidy to address the continuing problems of littering, graffiti and fly-tipping across the city. The Big Tidy teams help tackle these issues in areas where we know there is a significant problem.
“Bringing the sparkle back to an area isn’t as simple as cleaning up a street and thinking that the problem is solved. Residents have to feel ownership of their streets and take pride in them. This is why we have engagement officers on the Big Tidy team to encourage positive behaviour changes and enforcement offers to discourage illegal activities such as fly-tipping and tagging.”
To report fly-tipping or tagging please visit the Bristol City Council website.
Artist Jenny Simmons, said:
“I wanted to create a mural that could evolve over time. The modular design means that if the walls are tagged again new shapes can be painted over them.”
Bristol artist Jenny Simmons designed the bright and colourful mural to discourage tagging and help bring the sparkle back to the building.
Artist Beth Breeden helped Jenny to mark out the mural in chalk. She also cut in around the edges of the pattern before volunteers began painting.
On Tuesday, volunteers from Bristol Waste and Bristol Council started filling in the vibrant blocks of colour in the design to brighten up the alleyway.
It was all hands on deck as it started to get dark.
After two days of painting, the new mural was complete and the alleyway transformed! What do you think of Easton Leisure centre's Big Tidy?
