Legal graffiti site gets new boards for street art

Brand new hoardings have been installed on Clarence Street in Hull

A legal graffiti site has had a fresh set of blank boards installed to make way for new street art.

The former Clarence Mill site on Clarence Street in Hull has for several years been a council-approved street art area.

It is part of Bankside Gallery, which thanked the council for replacing the "weather-battered" boards that were there before.

A spokesperson from Hull City Council said the previous ones had "become damaged beyond repair" and had been replaced for health and safety reasons.

The council said they would engage with local artists to paint the new hoardings, adding that commissioned street art is "a huge part of Hull’s culture" and "provides vibrancy to sometimes run-down or derelict areas".

They said street art means "passers-by can sample colourful and engaging artwork, rather than staring at a blank canvas".

Bankside Gallery was created by friends Ollie Marshall and Kain Marshall as legacy project following Hull's City of Culture 2017, which some suggested might have inspired Banksy to paint a mural on Scott Street bridge.

The gallery includes parts of Bankside, Wincolmlee and Beverley Road as well as Clarence Street.

Adjacent to Drypool Bridge, the land is allocated as part of the East Bank Urban Village project, for which the council is actively seeking a development partner.

That will see up to 850 homes built on the East Bank of the River Hull, which the council said would create "a vibrant new urban village on underused brownfield land".