Background of the Safer Subways Project
Bracknell's subways
The town of Bracknell was designated a "New Town" after the war. Throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, the town was extended with urban development being linked to the town centre by a network of subways for pedestrians and cyclists.
The town continues to grow as part of Bracknell Forest Borough Council and there are now a total of 79 subways throughout the Borough. The majority of them belong to the highways department at Berkshire County Council.
Graffiti
During the 1980s, many of the subways became neglected and covered in graffiti with the County Council having a policy of removing only offensive graffiti when reported. This graffiti was difficult to remove from the vast expanses of concrete walls and when it was left it just attracted more.
The subways had been created in order to provide a safe journey into town, but many residents found them so threatening to walk through, they preferred to risk crossing busy roads and avoided the subways altogether. Therefore, it seemed the subways became a haven for those intent only on criminal or anti-social activity.
Headlines such as "Stamp out the Graffiti Gangs" and "Crackdown to Rid Town of Graffiti" became familiar features in the local newspapers.
Graffiti resistant surfaces
In the late 80s, Bracknell Forest Borough Council decided to take action and provide funding to give back the subways to the law-abiding residents and make them safe for all to use.
The Borough Environmental Services Department came up with a plan to coat all of the concrete walls with a graffiti-resistant finish as well as improving lighting, and cutting away surrounding undergrowth.
Additionally, they decided on a policy of keeping them all clean by appointing a dedicated graffiti removal operative as part of the street cleansing team, who would visit all subways every 48 hours and remove any graffiti from the newly coated walls using compatible chemicals. The operative would also be provided with a camera to take photographs of any repetitive "tags" (signatures).
The walls were thoroughly cleaned and prepared by pressure spraying or grit blasting, and coated with primer/undercoat resin sealer and heavy duty clear seal, which is a catalytically cured liquid plastic. It is easy to apply and chemical and oil resistant.
By the end of 1992, 31 of the 79 subways had been decorated with the graffiti-resistant coating and many of them had designs and shapes applied to break up the surface.
The programme of coating was very successful in that graffiti was quick and easy to remove and was not left for more than 48 hours. Some of the photos of "tags" were used in evidence to help the police in criminal proceedings against certain offenders in early 1990s, and people started to use the subways again.
Graffiti-resistant surfaces, however, did not completely prevent graffiti, as many walls provided a blank canvas to so-called artists many of whom just want to prominently make their mark for all to see.
Murals
In mid 1994, a project was carried out to renovate some public conveniences in the town. One of the problems was graffiti on the expanse of wall in both the ladies' and gents' toilets. The Council decided that, in addition to the application of graffiti-resistant coating, a mural could be applied depicting travel and local scenes (the conveniences were near the bus and rail stations).
These murals were so popular and successful that the following year, a subway leading from the bus station to the town was also decorated with the anti-graffiti coating, plus a series of paintings of local scenes - and Bracknell had its first 'art gallery'.
The project took about a month and attracted a lot of interest from the media and local people. "These murals are fantastic through the bus station subway and in the ladies' loo," said one lady. "I'm very impressed, that's what Council tax should pay for!"
In the same year, a subway near a school which had suffered from bad graffiti was painted with a mural by schoolchildren during a school holiday project, and coated with the clear graffiti-resistant finish. A resident phoned shortly after completion to say, "Thank you for the murals at Crown Wood - I am really thrilled and so are my neighbours, my sister and my friend - who is an artist!"
These three areas containing murals had previously been badly hit with ongoing graffiti, but it seemed that without the blank canvas, the incidents of graffiti reduced considerably and were far less noticeable on a busy mural than previously. Maybe the criminal graffiti artists had some sort of respect for real art.
The positive public reaction encouraged Bracknell Forest Borough Council to continue the theme of murals within underpasses. In 1996, some of the large concrete expanses of untreated wing walls leading to a series of underpasses under a major trunk road were painted with rural scenes, which has successfully prevented graffiti in an area which was badly hit in the past.
A series of dull subways leading from one of the older estates to the town required renovating in 1996. This time, an art gallery with a difference was created with impressionist-style paintings and pictures of people walking through the gallery and admiring the paintings.
The artist was inundated with requests from people living and working in the town to have their picture painted on the walls, and many people have been 'immortalised' in the subways.
Media interest
The local newspaper, with a headline "Art goes Underground", stated, "The subways in Bracknell are getting brighter and more beautiful. These are no ordinary pictures for they depict the residents and visitors to Bracknell going about their everyday life. In one subway a group sit on a bench watching the world go by while in another, the figures are surrounded by famous impressionist works in ornate frames."
Media interest was even more intense with the murals featured on BBC South and Meridian TV.
Public reactions
The positive reaction from the public was even more encouraging with one gentleman calling in at the Council offices to say how marvellous the subway between his home and the town centre were: "Excellent paintings, it's a pleasure to walk through and make me feel safer."
Another resident wrote, "I am writing to congratulate you on the wonderful idea of having an artist paint pictures of local people on the subways. I think it makes people stand for a while and look at the detail this man has put into his work, and I am sure the children are so proud of being on the wall, it will make them think twice about drawing graffiti all over them. When standing talking to the artist, the response he was getting from people was amazing. Once again, very well done for brightening up the dull subways."
The results
Bracknell Forest Borough Council had put in a lot of effort and funding to discourage graffiti and make its 79 subways safe for the public to use.
People have become proud of their subways and want them to be protected. Graffiti has been replaced by real art which the majority of people appreciates and admires. Whilst, as with other forms of vandalism, craft may never be eliminated. The Bracknell Forest Borough Council project has been seen as a positive and popular method of minimising the problem in our area.
Graffiti removed from treated walls has reduced from over 5,000 square metres in 1995/6 to less than 2,5000 square metres in 2000.
Removal and obliterating graffiti from untreated wing walls is almost twice the cost of the simple and effective removal from treated surfaces.
Photographs of "tags" are still taken by the street cleansing contractor and environmental officers who patrol the Borough, and these are sent to Police with other information gathered which may be sent in evidence following any arrests.
Further work
With the majority of subways now treated, the programme is continuing into the 21st Century with more murals and with priority being given to graffiti coating of untreated areas, especially some of the vast 'wing' walls.
In 1997, Bracknell College NVQ students designed and painted a mural near their college building on dingy concrete walls which had been badly defaced with graffiti.
In the same year, a Youth Action Group comprising 6th Form pupils at a local comprehensive school organised a competition to design a mural at Bracknell railway station which was to be a joint project with the Council and South West Trains. This project received much TV and press coverage.
As a result of this partnership, murals and coating were applied on a railways bridge at Martins Heron station in Bracknell. The murals depicted old steam trains and provide a different view for train passengers as they enter the borough of Bracknell Forest.
In 1998/9 more town centre underpasses were coated, including one which had murals of old Bracknell as it was before it became a "New Town". This attracted much interest from local residents who remembered the old buildings, many of whom wanted to talk to the artists while out shopping, which caused a certain amount of delay! Some of the work was sponsored by the HSBC bank.
In the same year as part of the town centre improvement project, the concrete walls surrounding the open part of the market and underpasses leading to it were painted with brightly-coloured murals actually depicted the market stalls and characters who run the stalls and attend the market. They were then finished off with clear graffiti-resistant coating.
In the year 2000, a number of other underpasses in the town were treated and had murals painted in them in bright colours. Then a series of linking underpasses which run beneath the Met Office roundabout were recoated. Linking underpasses were painted to depict the four seasons of the year using scenes of Bracknell Forest, and the Met Office made a contribution towards one of the panels.
Other underpasses in the same complex were illustrated, one with scenes of transport through the millennium, and other in communication through the millennium. Yet another showed town centre events, such as 'Bracknell Beach'. Other underpasses became a brightly-coloured 'tropical rainforest'.
A great deal of interest is shown in all of the work that is carried out, most of it by the same Berkshire artist. A local paint company, Daler Rowney, have also contributed some of their acrylic paints to the artist. A large number of positive comments have been received by members of the public, and some from visitors outside the borough.
As part of the Mayor's fundraising programme, the Borough Forest Subway Challenge was launched in 2000. This involves teams from local business and voluntary groups racing around the underpasses seeing how many they can 'visit' in two hours.
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