I visited the Nomadic Community Gardens off Brick Lane last weekend. It was always a place to see street art, and it was a popular place for people to hang out. There was a theatre there with other activities, vegetable gardens, and a little cafe known as the "Roving Cafe", selling fresh and home-made food. I'd eaten there in the make-shift picnic benches three springs ago with an ex-colleague. The Nomadic Community Gardens were a popular place to explore. Of coruse, it started as an unattractive and vacant lot of land between the rail lines before it became the community gardens. It thrived as these community gardens for nearly six years. Over those years, it quickly became a popular place and hosted many street art events. But, nearly four months ago now, it was taken over by developers. This meant that everything had to be moved out or simply abandoned. Some was left behind, and the walls still contain street art, especially the big wall with stairwell over the train line at the end.
The area is still popular for street art, and that street art has now transferred to rail bridge the walls opposite the Nomadic Community Gardens. It was not like that until the popularity of the gardens, but it's actually since the gardens have been closed and fenced off that it has become an even more popular place for street art. The increased gentrification has likely spread it to this new area whereas other walls have largely disappeared.
Actually, it is a sad state to see the change here from a vacant and empty lot to a thriving community area and now again to an empty lot that will be developed on. I visited again this weekend, and since the original fences could easily be scaled and people could see in the gardens, new wooden fences have been erected so that people cannot see in.
Here are some street art events and photos from the Nomadic Community Gardens in this blog:
Meeting of Styles 2018
Meeting of Styles Wall 2018
Street Art Round-Up (Lolie Darko, Envol, Fanakapan, and More)
Meeting of the Styles 2017
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