Mayor of Camden unveils inspired community mural at Regent's Park Estate

28 Mar 2012

On Monday 26 March 3 teachers and 10 students from local Haverstock School witnessed the grand unveiling of a fantastic mural that they helped to create at the Regent’s Park Estate, Camden. The art project was organised by award winning Lakehouse, whose people are working on this estate and others close by to improve homes for thousands of families, thanks to a five year Better Homes contract awarded by Camden Council.

Lakehouse Director, John Lewthwaite, welcomed guests and spoke about the importance of developing strong relationships with local people, involving residents in the work taking place in their own communities, and changing the face of construction. The celebratory event was held to commemorate completion of the mural, and to recognise the students and teachers who had worked tirelessly over the previous week to outline and paint the mural, which was designed by student Charlie Carrigan.

Lakehouse came up with the idea of an art competition in response to comments that the site compound was unsightly, and decided to get local people involved in transforming it into the site of a bright, interesting piece of art for the entire community to enjoy. Charlie and his fellow students showed off their designs and discussed their concepts at an exhibition of their work at a local community hall earlier that month, and local people had the difficult task of choosing their overall favourite. Charlie impressed everyone with his winning design, depicting a London skyline, using red, white and blue to capture the spirit of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the forthcoming Olympic Games. He and his fellow students then took on the mammoth task of translating Charlie’s design onto a massive signboard, via a band stand which Lakehouse erected to make it safe for them to do so.

Local residents, Lakehouse, Camden Council representatives Stuart Dilley, Ashford Francis, Sarah Brown, John Cooper, watched special guest the Mayor of Camden, Abdul Qadir, unveil the mural and present Charlie with his prize, commending everyone involved.

Ahsev Merdjan, Vocational & Workplace Learning Manager for Haverstock School said: “I want to say a massive thank you to Lakehouse for all of your hard work and support with this project. We are really grateful for the opportunity and the students have gained a lot from the experience, especially Charlie who has grown in confidence. These are the kinds of projects that help us to make our BTEC courses more vocational.”