Beeston Street Art begins to appear before our very eyes

This is a very up-to-date map showing street art locations being created over this weekend. The map is extracted from my Beeston Speed Map due to be published in time for next month's Beeston Carnival... Click on the map to enlarge.

I spent a couple of hours at the White Lion watching as the street artists began to paint and left before any work was complete. It may be a few days before they are all finished. In meantime regard this post as me capturing 'work in progress'. I will add names tomorrow if I have time. In the meantime enjoy and ponder artists at work, plus Lauren who had a display of her art inside the White Lion. 

Street Art weekend just days away and new Beeston Map progresses

Jeanie Barton and her colleagues have been working behind the scenes so to speak preparing to pull off a great artistic venture. Her poster says it all:

A leaflet just emailed to me by Judy Sleath, Chair of Beeston & District Civic Society, lists the eight street art locations around the town you can visit. This has enabled me to mark all the location onto the new maps below.

Feedback on my new look Beeston Map confirmed what I suspected — that including EVERY retail unit on one map A3 size had the potential to be confusing  and so it turned out to be. As a result I have stripped out service providers who you need an appointment to see and all estate and letting agent bar C P Walker & Son, who support the map with by placing an advert.

One problem was the size of The Square, which I have now enlarged in the latest draft version (see below), but that has meant tweaking the map. It is still crowded, but seeing people staring intently at a draft copy, then asking questions, was reward enough.

For the Beeston Festival next month I hope the map will be joined by a vertical banner showing all four sections of the map seamlessly joined together. It is still not too late to comment as I am now parking the map until Monday week (25 June).

The map will also mark all the Beeston Street Art locations, for which I have created a fun marker on the basis that what we are about to see on the streets of Beeston is a visual arts explosion!

You can see street art locations marked on the maps.

PS. I know I have still to mark the new gin place on Chilwell Road and change / add a couple of names (eg. new Hive occupants Mr. Perfect Pets and Trendy Nippers Boutique — who get their own blog post in the next day or two complete with pics).

Barton's Garage Market — a great event in the making

Sunday morning just gone was my second visit to Barton's Sunday Market in The Garage on Chilwell Road. This time there was a coach parked in the entrance to help draw attention to the market. 

Let me take you on a wander and a quick look at some of the stalls. This is a personal selection. There were more to see. For the record I spent £10 at the second-hand book stall.

Sunday was hot and there was plenty of competition about — from Wollaton Park and the local Art Trail. The Garage with its collection of vintage buses and coaches makes a great market venue and reminds me of Nottingham's Cattle Market off London Road, only this is much better and much more accessible with The Tram and great bus services (Nottingham City Transport's 36; Your Bus Y5 and Trent-Barton's Indigo and route 20). Plus good car parking. You put all this together and you have a great event in the making.

The next market is on Sunday 1 July 2018 and billed as:

To find out more visit The Garage website's page about the market.

I wish the Barton brothers well. They were all there on Sunday working their socks off, along with their mum — a real family venture.