Plymouth City Council has provided £1,500 of match funding
Chaddlewood Subways Renovation
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Aim
To repair and refresh the murals in the Chaddlewood subways and establish a mural artwork repair and development budget.
A brief history of the 6 Chaddlewood subway murals
In June 2022 there was a collaboration with local community groups, Pollinize, Clean Our patch and Art and Energy who formed a project with Mrs Murals.
The aims of the subway art project
- Engage local schools to promote art and citizenship
- Brighten up often dark and dreary subways
- Reduce the fear of crime and promote walking
- Promote environmental awareness, community cohesion, health and well being through art.
Local artist Mrs Murals was keen to get on board and from the brief, designed artwork to be thought provoking and educational
Mrs Murals designed the artwork for the 6 subways
- Flower subway -Under road nr Bellingham Crescent
- Bee subway - Under Hillcrest road -Downfield area
- Butterfly subway - Under Glen Road, near Edwards Drive
- Bird Subways - Two subways under Glen Road and Kingston Drive
The last subway to be painted was the Sea Subway Under Glen Road, near Chaddlewood Primary School
The Sea subway was designed by local school children from Chaddlewood primary school during lesson based workshops. Mrs Murals then applied the art to the walls. Since then Mrs Murals has hosted several stencil sessions over the summer holidays to help add additional art to the walls.
Why is Chaddlewood FANS leading this Crowdfunder ?
Chaddlewood FANS is made up of people who have an interest and a passion for maintaining, developing and enhancing the Chaddlewood area. A really important part of our work is to foster positive relationships and work within the community to ensure Chaddlewood remains a lovely place to live, work and go to school. Members of our group have always taken a keen interest in the development of the subway murals. Chaddlewood FANs has assisted with the cleaning and the repainting of the subway walls over the years and will continue to do so with the support of local residents. We know, by talking to people, the murals are also very special to many of those living in Plympton. It also important to Chaddlewood FANS that a local artist, based in Plymouth is again involved with this project.
Why are we asking for your help?
Now the time has come when we can no longer manage the repairs with just washing and a quick paint and patch up. All of the subway murals have been defaced in varying degrees with tagging, obscene graffiti and have repeatedly been purposefully dirtied on all walls and ceilings.
Specific damage
- The Flower subway has been damaged by fire.
- The Bee subway has sustained extensive damage to the actual walls and therefore the mural, by people having gouged a large hole. The Bee mural has also had to have part of the mural painted over with white paint to hide offensive wording
- The Sea subway has a number of areas where the plaster under the mural has been picked off.
- So to achieve all this we need to raise £3000.
The funding will pay for:
- The time that the artist is committing to this project
- All art materials such as paint, brushes and cleaning materials
- Scaffolding and platforms where required
- Insurances
- Some on going maintenance of art works
- The infilling of refreshed white spaces with new art
When will the project start?
We plan to start the project at the beginning of May 2026 and complete the restoration of the subways before the end of Summer of 2026
This project is subject to funding and is only achievable with help from our community.
We can't do this without your support!
This is a fantastic opportunity for people to get involved with maintaining the much loved Chaddlewood subway art.
We can't rely on other funding being made available for this project, so we need as many donations as possible.
Don't rely on others to donate, make your pledge today and share this page!
To secure our target of £3000
The project requires at least 25 separate donators and also must reach 25% of the £3000 target ( £750) in order for PCC to match the total raised.
We have to raise the full £3000 in order to receive any of the monies raised. It is an all or nothing fund raiser. Monies will be returned to donators if the target is not achieved. We are grateful to the local Plympton Chaddlewood Councillors, who will be donating a portion of their Community Grant.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please consider making a donation to this brilliant cause, what ever the amount, it will make a difference.
This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2026