Twelve new murals brighten Northfield underpasses once avoided after dark

Twelve pedestrian underpasses in Northfield, long regarded by residents as gloomy and best avoided at night, have been transformed with large painted murals. The project, run by the Northfield Arts Collective with the city council, involved 14 professional artists and more than 200 pupils from five local schools, who helped design and paint the walls over the summer holidays.

Each tunnel has its own theme drawn from the area's history, from the brickworks that once employed thousands in Northfield to the market gardens that supplied the city with vegetables. In the longest underpass, beneath the Larkspur Road roundabout, a 40-metre painting shows the River Asher from its source in the Greyling Hills to the sea at Greyling Bay.

The children decided what went on the walls. We just made sure it would still look good in ten years.

So said the lead artist, Temperance Achebe-Ward, who has painted murals in several cities. Before painting began, the walls were cleaned, repaired and coated with an anti-graffiti layer. At the same time the council replaced the lighting in all twelve tunnels with brighter LED fittings and cut back overgrown shrubs at the entrances.

More people on foot

Early counts suggest the changes are making a difference. Automatic counters installed by the council recorded around 30 per cent more people walking through the underpasses in September than in the same month last year. Residents' association chair Colin Mbatha said older people in particular had started using routes they had avoided for years. "My neighbour used to walk an extra kilometre round the roundabout," he said. "Now she goes through the tunnel and stops to look at the paintings."

The project cost around €210,000, most of it from the council's neighbourhood improvement budget. The collective has published a free walking map linking all twelve murals, and pupils who took part will lead guided tours on two Saturdays next month.