STREET art by graffiti artist Stik has been saved in a preservation project to raise funds for local community art projects.
Acton Gardens, a 2,500-home development between housebuilder Countryside and housing association L&Q, used a specialist team to carefully remove part of a 125ft mural on the side of Charles Hocking House, an empty tower block soon to be demolished.
The main mural, which covers the whole of one side of the building - known as ‘Big Mother’ – is the creation of Stik.
In Bollo Bridge Road is a smaller mural that includes a version of ‘Big Mother’, referred to as the ‘Family Group’.
The Acton Gardens team devised a plan to rescue it before the 1960s council tower block was knocked down in the latest phase of one of the capital’s largest regeneration programmes.
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‘Big Mother’ will now be auctioned off, with proceeds being donated to ARTification, a charity transforming communities through art.
It could sell for as much as £150,000. Recently, a 3ft high wooden example of the mural sold at Christie’s for £42,000.
The preservation project is supported by the Stik, alongside the Acton Gardens development partners and Ealing Council.
Charles Hocking House will be replaced by 160 modern homes, expected to be completed in 2020.
Mike Woolliscroft, of Countryside, said: “The painting was on fragile brickwork that could have disintegrated at any time during the extraction.
“It was touch and go at one point whether one of our specialist teams could pull it off, but after weeks of painstaking work they did. I’m really proud of them.”
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