Vibrant murals transform City Centre spaces
Clough Street – a busy throughfare used by pedestrians between the main shopping and dining area in Stoke-on-Trent City Centre and Tesco Extra, has been transformed, thanks to colourful and vibrant murals.
As part of Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID’s Operation Sparkle – an all-important project to considerably improve our city centre by working with partners and businesses to help clean
up the trading environment – graffiti has been cleaned off buildings and replaced with eye
catching artwork to improve the look and feel of the City Centre.
BID Manager Richard Buxton said: “With 87% of Hanley businesses in the BID area strongly agreeing that an improved look and feel should be prioritised for the city centre, Operation Sparkle is a real priority for us, and the BID’s business plan centres around many street art initiatives to bring this vision to reality.
“The development on Clough Street is just one of the projects lined up by Stoke on Trent
City Centre BID to not only provide a much more attractive trading environment, but also to
showcase the talent we have here in the city. As it is located in such a busy walkway, we hope that visitors, as well as city centre employees and residents, enjoy the new artwork that they walk away with a fresh new perspective on Stoke-on-Trent City Centre.”
Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID have been working with We Are Culla, Piccadilly-based creative
agency, and British artist TEAone to give the former Rockermans furniture store a face-lift.
The location was once a Goods depot for the London, Midland Scottish Railway and is one of a few original buildings that remains in the City Centre from over a century ago.
Rob Fenton and Tom Edwards, co-owners of We Are Culla and think street art is an effective,
innovative and modern way to enhance the streetscape.
Rob said: “My main aim in all of the work I do is to help the city of Stoke-on-Trent grow and evolve, so it’s great that We are Culla’s aims align with the BIDs plans and we can work together to improve the look and feel of the area through new artwork, more of which is in the pipeline.”
Tm added: “Our city is a breeding ground for creativity and innovation and so it makes total sense to showcase this in a colourful and accessible way for all audiences to enjoy. We’re honoured to have TEAone on board – a key player in the street art world – to bring our combined vision with the BID to reality.”
In addition, the unit closest to Tesco’s car park has been enhanced by local artist and wildlife
photographer James Rogerson, who also was the artist behind the artwork on the Foundry
Street door as part of the BID’s Our Front Door project in 2019.
The brickwork now proudly wears a cityscape scene in Spode blue which pays homage to
Stoke-on-Trent’s wildlife and heritage, woven with James’ passion for both the city and
nature. (Main image.)
“I have been photographing the wildlife around the city for some years and wanted to
highlight the importance of Stoke-on-Trent’s green (and not so green) spaces” says James.
“They are often surprisingly rich in biodiversity, from kingfishers and otters along our
waterways, to the peregrines that soar over the concrete cliffs of our City Centre. For my
mural, I have run with a design that nods towards the pottery industry as many of the old
industry sites are also some of the best wildlife spots we have in Stoke-on-Trent.
“I hope that by reminding people of this, there will be a greater appreciation of what we have
here and that hopefully we can do our best to make space for wildlife alongside future
developments for all our benefit.”
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