Matlakas is back.

(UPDATE 25 Aug 2010)  These 2 paintings were removed this morning.  I did say get a look while they're still fresh but I didn't expect them to get painted over that quickly.  What seems to have happened is this: a tagger came along and stuck a couple of fairly random sub-NVQ graffiti green splodges in neighbouring arches.  The council anti-graffitil team, who don't seem to have a problem with Matlakas' work, do have a brief to remove graffiti and they can't really make aesthetic judgements about what is art and what is graffiti, so the whole lot had to go.  So thank you, idiot  with the green spraycan for wasting public money and getting artwork removed.

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A while ago this graffiti artist - real name Riccardo Attanasio - did some rather striking art on the arches on the Ha'penny Hatch.  One conscientious citizen even called out the police while Matlakas was still at work, and yet he managed to convince them that it was art and the police went away content.  Later, of course, someone came along and sprayed someone's phone number with lewd suggestions on a neighbouring arch and the anti-graffiti team painted over the whole lot.

Well, these two have just reappeared.  Best to get a look while they're still fresh. 

And here's a photo of the first one - Feb 2009

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Disappearing Deptford

Ok, record stuck in a groove time again....  I have this theory that Deptford is going to disappear.  Already, Greenwich SE8 has become a westward-drifting reality and there's also a gradual expansion of Brockley from the south (Deptford cemetery is now Brockley cemetery, Deptford Common is now Hilly Fields).  And today, quite by chance, I wanted to get a streetview image of somewhere in Deptford.  I started typing in Deptford High Street but before I'd got half of it done Google auto-completed the address for me.  Yes, Deptford, according to Google, is now in Greenwich!