The corner that used to be the Standard music venue, once lively and now boarded up, presents a blank facade of white plywood hoardings, carefully kept clear of bill postings and graffiti. Or it did until this weekend - on Friday all was as usual, but then a riot of colour appeared overnight. A series of panels are painted all down the Ferry Lane hoarding and part way across the front of the disused pub. Each image is a red name card - "Hello! my name is..." with a signature tag, the standard swirly indecipherable lettering. Not by any means good art, but colourfulness is ok, if only they hadn't given up half way across the front of the building.
The site was going to be a Turkish supermarket until planning permission was turned down because it didn't fit in with the redevelopment plans for the area, so the building has sat there empty, lowering the tone at this end of Blackhorse Lane until something definite gets decided. The Standard itself is a listed building, which may mean it will not be demolished, but sooner or later the rest of the site will be become a construction site. But for now the only going concern is the car park, which specialises in bright colourful hand-painted notices.
So perhaps it's not surprising to see the blank hoardings decorated. The guy who sits out in the car park hut all day is friendly but not talkative.
Hello my name is appears to be an 'international graffiti group', but it's a simple idea that anyone could copy, so who knows?
