This evening we are taking a look at year of Street Art in Penge, something we have to say which has been a real pleasure to look back on. Since the blog’s inception five years ago now we have began delving into various projects the most rewarding of which has been the organization of Street Art in our hometown of Penge through our SprayExhibition20 Community Street Art Project, which has seen some 238 artworks placed up around Penge and Anerley over the last 4 years.

In 2016 we were able to facilitate some 19 works across 16 spaces, in 2017 we have managed to organise a further 90 works across some 84 spots around town and in 2018 we put together 71 artworks across 61 spaces. Over the course of 2019 we are proud to have organised 62 across 56 spaces and its only fair to say that the community of Penge and Anerley has fully embraced the addition of some creativity to the town and are providing more spaces than we ever really hoped to get. Indeed all of this has been made possible due to the incredible support of the local community who have provided spaces to paint, ladders, food and drinks and even in some cases, paint. Community spirit combined with the generous support of artists who have given their time to paint for free have certainly continued to provide a perfect atmosphere for the relentless addition of a splash of colour and life to SE20.

What a year its been, kicking things of the first week of 2019 with the ‘Anything’s Better Than A Blank Wall’ Paint Jam dedicated to the late Gordon Gibbens which saw some 17 artists come celebrate four years of the blog with us and in the process give Penge quite the makeover. A couple of weeks later we conducted a free tour of SprayExhibition20 in memory of Gordon Gibbens and to raise funds for St Christopher’s Hospice from where Gordon made his final Graffiti ventures. We had an amazing turn out with over 50 people joining us for the 4.5 hour walk around SE20 in the sunshine, torrential rain and hail stones. People traveled down from Bristol, Edinburgh and even as far afield as Brussels to enjoy the towns art. We had an amazing day and including some further book sales of copies of ‘How Graffiti Saved My Dad’s Life (At Least for a While)‘ a book about Gordon Gibbens written by his daughter Jane Murphy a total of £377.20 was raised thanks to the generosity of everyone who came along. This big start to the year was followed by a steady stream of painting consistently throughout the year with the project venturing into an ever increasing number of new corners of town, the first of two notable new additions to the towns budding gallery is the half-a-dozen works which have appeared in St Hugh’s Estate with the help from the St Hugh’s Community Centre and Clarion. The second of which is the project expanding not just through Anerley, but up Anerley Hill to Crystal Palace.

As is always the case we couldn’t do what we do here without the help we receive from the good friends we have made along the way and this last year was truer than ever with the invaluable help some people selflessly provided to do whatever it took to make Street Art appear around SE20 and often don’t get the credit they deserve. Thank you to everyone involved in the project so far, artists, business owners and residents, SE20 wouldn’t be looking so good without all your trust, support and time. Firstly thank you to all the artists for coming down to paint spaces big and small to brighten up walls around the Penge and Anerley. Secondly thank you to all the businesses’ as well as to all the residents for providing us with spaces to let the artists work their magic. A big thank you to New Art Rioter for all the help with everything behind the scenes. Big thank you to Kevin for all the help with ladders, buffing and running around SE20 so that walls can be painted and people can enjoy it, a lot of what has been achieved about town this last year has been made possible and so much easier through Kevin’s selfless help to the project! Big thank you to Street Art Atlas for all the help throughout the year from buffing walls to driving us and artists around town.Thank you to London Graffiti for all the support from across the pond in sending international artists our way when they have visited London, South-East London has more than a few excellent additions that wouldn’t of happened with out their kind help. Thank you to Alicja and the team at the St Hugh’s Community Centre and Clarion for all their help and trust in the artists and ourselves to start painting spots in St Hugh’s Estate. Thank you to local councilors Angela and Patrick for rallying the local business’ along Anerley Hill into donating spaces to the expanding project. Thank you to Network Rail for the spaces around Penge Lane. Thank you to Jane and Tom at Colossive Press for all the help with the tours and stashing paint when needed! Thank you to Beth and Olly who not only provided us with a magnificent spot in Ash Grove but also looked after ourselves and Aspire so well while we set up residency in the garden for a week. Thank you to Community Magazine SE20 for allowing us to share the Art of Penge with the town in their superb publication – which has led to people providing us more spaces to paint. Thank you to Spike_ML, M_Frenchi, Tanya Nash, Portrait Per Day and everyone else that helped with all the other little tasks that need to occur behind the scenes in order to make this all happen. Your help is immensely appreciated and its only fair to say that SE20 is looking all the much better for all your help. We would also like to add a few thank you’s to Lawrence & Ben for providing ladders. Thank you to Joseph at the Alexandra, for being so hospitable and helping out with ladders when required. As well as thank you to everyone who lives local or has visited Penge for taking the time to come down to Penge and share some of the work we have been doing in our local area to the wider world. Finally thank you to everyone who has taken the time whilst the artists have been about Penge painting to take the time to say something nice about the art they create for us to enjoy. So without further ado here is our year of Street Art in Penge, it’s been a blast everyone and we for one can’t wait to see where this is all heading in 2020!