Letter: Even Good Art Can’t Make a Silk Purse…

Published on: 13 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 13 Aug, 2025

From Bernard Quoroll

In response to: New Mural Covers Up Graffiti at Walnut Bridge

A brave and worthy initiative but I fear that this new art will itself be attacked before very long. Areas that are poorly lit, and relatively isolated at night, are simply too easy to deface. It pains me to say it but the potential to “design out crime” seems not to have entered the minds of its designers.

A better solution would have been not to replace the bridge before its time, or only as part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the adjoining site in which overlooking, camera placement and lighting could have been more thoughtfully incorporated.

Doing so might also have led to less wastage of valuable town centre land and a better design solution, rather than the creation of an unofficial skateboard park on one side of the bridge and several poorly lit hang-outs for disreputable behaviour.

Given that we are where we are, experience suggests that highly maintained areas attract less vandalism, (the broken window theory). But that means maintaining the bridge and its environment to the highest standards, using anti graffiti paint wherever possible and repairing and repainting damage very quickly (within a few days) so as not to allow an area to appear neglected.

It also means greater priority being given toward catching vandals (I won’t glorify them by calling them “graffiti artists”).

GBC has had some individual successes in the town centre, which should be acknowledged but still has some way to go in understanding what should be involved in promoting an excellent town centre – so important as retail activity declines. It needs a holistic approach, promoting the town as a welcoming place where a growing range of activities can blossom. The devil is in the vision and the detail.

Meanwhile, so much money has been wasted on what was meant to be a trophy bridge. So much money to build something so uninspiring. No amount of good art can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

See other articles on Walnut Bridge here.