Stories Behind The Art: Oval Cricket Ground

The Brandon Estate in Kennington Park was in desperate need of some care and attention after it had spent years at the mercy of spray paint and graffiti. Local residents felt that the 60m stretch of wall surrounding Kennington Park represented the bygone days of gang culture and violence, a time the community were keen to leave behind. 

Brewers Decorator Centres in association with local group Bee Urban undertook an ambitious community scheme alongside the Brandon Tenants Residents Association to restore the community’s spirit and unity by painting a massive mural along a 60m wall, making it one of London’s longest murals.

Brewers Peckham store manager Jimmy Thomson was delighted to help by donating over 150 litres of Albany Paint to the community project. The Peckham store were blown away by the enthusiasm of Bee Urban’s Barnaby Shaw as his team strove to overcome the negative image created about the estate, seeking instead to highlight a very different message.

The twelfth half hexagon is a tribute to the famous Oval Cricket stadium - home to Surrey Cricket Club since 1845 and the first ground in history to host international Test Cricket in September 1880.

Despite its extensive history in Cricket it is not the only thing that the Oval is famed for, it has also hosted a number of historically significant events over the years.

1870 saw the first England international football match versus Scotland. The first international pitted an English team of army officers and experienced amateur players against a mostly London-based Scottish side, consisting of two prevalent MP’s of the time. The Oval also accommodated numerous professional teams, most famously hosting the first FA Cup Final in 1872 as well as 1874 and 1892!

Alongside cricket and football The Oval also hosted rugby matches between England and Wales and then England and Scotland in 1876 as well as the first ever varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge in 1877, what a history!

To this day The Oval hosts an array of international cricket and is only a short walk from Kennington Park, with many of the children involved in the project expressing how much they enjoyed playing cricket in the park during the summer months after being inspired by weekend trips to the prestigious cricket ground. The mural pays homage to the grounds extensive legacy as constituent part of London and acts an inspiration to multiple generations of budding athletes, immortalising the grounds rich and diverse sporting history through artistic expression.