Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see joggers, parents, schoolchildren, postal workers and any other passer- by pause to look up at the two murals that face each other under the railway arches in Burbage Road.
Each was added as a centrepiece of the annual Dulwich Festival in May 2019 and June 2020 respectively. What a lifetime seems to have passed by between those two dates!
Both murals reflect the huge curiosity of locals and residents of Burbage Road about the history of our area and are gateways to completely different stories. Both were painted by the same artist, Lionel Stanhope, and if you look closely at the image of actor Richard Burbage, you’ll notice that there is a more than a hint of Lionel in his face.
Richard Burbage is the Shakespearean actor and entrepreneur who gave Burbage Road its name. His reputed self portrait hangs in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, one of the earliest representations of the acting profession. On the 400th anniversary of his death a mural celebrating his greatest performances and exuberant acting style was unveiled as part of year-long celebrations in Burbage Road.
But the damp streaked wall opposite him looked all the more forlorn once the mural was in place. Two things happily coincided to change the situation.
Burbage resident, local trader and Dulwich Society history legend, Brian Green had devised a walk for residents as part of the celebrations to illustrate how the road’s sports facilities had sprung up when the farms which originally occupied our road at the turn of the 20th Century needed to look for new sources of income.
At about this time (1868) the railways themselves had brought new housing and residents looking for the idyllic combination of nearness to town, fresh air and leisure facilities. In this way a watercress field turned into a velodrome and a dairy farm into tennis courts and a croquet lawn, and many a friendship and even romance was forged on gentle summer evenings.
The second catalyst was a world ranked squash player who walked under the arches several times a week to reach the Dulwich Sports Club. By his own admission he knew nothing about art, but had a very strong feeling that a sports mural would fit the spot perfectly.
The only problem was that it was in the middle of Covid lockdown and there was no money. Fortunately he met the extraordinary Alison Venn for whom neither of these was an obstacle. Alison put together a team based around designer Martin White, Dulwich Festival artist Katrina Russell-Adams with seed-funding provided by Ian McInnes of the Dulwich Society. She explained the railway/sport connection to Network Rail, who offered major funding straight away and who managed to secure some time from street artist Lionel Stanhope, who was busy creating inspirational murals for the NHS.
So in June 2020 the mural was created during social distancing measures. One night Lionel‘s work was vandalised heavily, but Alison was there at 8am the next morning with a high-pressure water hose so that he could continue and finish on time.
Katrina’s design is bold and colourful and cleverly incorporates references to many sports, some of which are obvious and some are hidden in the colours and multiple layers of this beautiful art work.
You can spot croquet, cricket, squash, tennis and hockey and look out for the colours of the Herne Hill Velodrome and Dulwich Hamlet football club as well as a homage to legendary ‘Chariots of Fire’ athletics coach Scipio Africanus ‘Sam’ Mussabini who lived at 84 Burbage Road.
The sports mural couldn’t be more different to that of Richard Burbage opposite. But knowing Burbage a little bit better now, as we all do, I feel he would wholeheartedly approve.
*featured image thanks to Dulwich Society.
