WELCOME HOME

Last month, I led a group of primary school children from North London on a drawing tour of Kentish Town, exploring the nature woven into their urban surroundings. Their drawings inspired a new mural that now brightens their school stairwell.

I had a nice long itinerary planned out, ending at Hampstead Heath, but I soon realised that it was going to have to change. There was so much to see on the nearby streets, and every time we stopped the children became completely engrossed in the little details around them. They’d get their pencils and sketchbooks out and start drawing: the brightly-painted skips which have been turned into urban planters; the way the trees bent over from the neighbouring gardens; the pigeons and the small shoots of plants creeping through walls and pavements.

I was in my element too. It was so fun to be able to stop and draw in public -  to see people as excited as me about the little details that make up the surrounding environment.

One moment stands out in particular. Across the road from their local Tube stop, there’s a mural on the side of a building. In blocky, six-foot-high lettering, against a sky blue background, it says “Welcome to Kentish Town”. 

As soon as we hit the junction, all of the kids started pointing at the sign and chattering. 

Those words mean something to them. 

You can see why. Kentish Town is a welcoming place. It feels like the kind of melting pot neighbourhood that drew me to London in the first place. It’s not just one thing for one kind of person here - which means that there’s room for anyone to make it their own. Kentish Towners talk about it: there’s a sense of community here that is bigger than any one subgroup. And, in their own way, that’s what I think the children were saying when they excitedly pointed up at the sign. 

But there is another story to tell here. Because Kentish Town - and the wider borough of Camden - is also a study in contrasts. It’s a place where one of the most deprived council estates in the country exists alongside some of the most expensive roads in London, where houses change hands for tens of millions of pounds. As in so many parts of the city, wealth inequality is widening. And if the next generation can’t afford to live where they grew up - how welcome can they really be made to feel?

Art can’t change the economics of any of this. A mural doesn’t make it easier for a young person to get on the housing ladder. 

But something about the “Welcome to Kentish Town” sign had a meaningful effect on those kids. And it speaks to what I try and achieve in my work, too… 

For me, it’s not just paint on walls; it’s a way to help children see their connection to a rapidly changing city. To feel a sense of ownership - and, through that, a sense of possibility. Helen Bruckdorfer, the headteacher, has a clear vision for how small creative initiatives like this can shift a child’s sense of self, from observer to participant. 

Through the drawings we made on that walk through the area and painting the mural on the wall, I’m looking to tell stories and find ways to help the children see that the city - even the shiny redeveloped parts - belongs to them too. To help join the dots and see themselves as participants in the world around them, not just observers.