Leamington's Mural Festival returns with vibrant artistry
The Leamington Mural Festival has returned to the town for another year, beginning on 29 March and running until 2 November 2025.
Brink Contemporary Arts, a Midlands-based street art group founded in 2010, initiated the festival to help make street art more available to the public.
The festival's creator, Tim Robottom, whose street artist name is Lord Numb, said: "I think what draws people to street art is that it's so accessible.
"I feel that quite often, public art institutions or galleries, which are private, even if they're publicly funded, are sometimes a bit stuffy, and quite often the work is traditional.
"I love all forms of art, but it's not for everybody, especially if you have to pay to get in.
"Some galleries charge for access to certain exhibitions, and I think that's a real shame, because that's going to mean that it's inaccessible to certain people."
Robottom further noted that the festival has helped elevate Leamington Spa on the cultural map.
He said: "Leamington has definitely become a talking point, not just locally, but nationally and internationally."
He recalled how a family friend returning from Berlin had seen a display in the city centre showcasing top murals from around Europe.
Among them was The Lady of Shrubland Street, painted the previous year by Brink Contemporary Arts.
"One of Berlin's top nine murals is in Leamington," expressed Robottom.
Beyond creating murals, Robottom also voluntarily leads guided street art tours, showcasing the murals.
The tours are now in partnership with the Leamington History Group and each costs £10 per person.
Each tour is limited to 12 participants, and all proceeds go directly toward funding new murals, helping to cover artist fees, paint, crane hire, and insurance.
While artists continue to paint new walls year-round, maintaining older works can be a challenge.
Murals that are over five years old often need repainting or even replacing, however, Robottom tries to paint the murals in new spaces where possible.
One of the largest murals created so far this year in Leamington is Hope for Humanity, a 70-metre-long mural in Strathearn Gardens.
Designed by Robottom and supported by artist Gordon Landsburgh, the work blends nature with social commentary and was partly inspired by ideas from year five and six children at Milverton Primary School.
"The delivery truck driven by a tortoise with sand in the back of the truck is kind of loosely to show that the sand is on its way to fill the hole where the pigeons and the slug are looking," explained Robottom.
He continued: "Like a lot of these constructions, they seem to go on forever, and everyone else's life is impacted.
"It takes longer to get to work, it takes longer to get the kids to school, it takes longer to get home, and it takes longer to go shopping.
"There are always traffic lights everywhere.
"Sometimes there's not even any roadworks going on!
"The tortoise, the pigeons and the slug are literally to represent that, and as my friend put it, it is that sluggishness of the construction industry.
"A lot of people have said that actually made me laugh out loud, because straight away they understand what it means."
Other sections of the mural are equally rich in symbolism, including a toad acting as a security guard.
Another shows a rolling landscape revealing a castle, a lake with a "fat cat" in a top hat aboard a boat.
One panel shows a squirrel propped with a chainsaw, making his way through a woodland to create space for a new building development.
The final panel shows an avenue of trees with a bright light at the end, something that symbolises a sense of hope for Robottom and relates to the mural's title, Hope for Humanity.
The mural was part-sponsored by Warwickshire county and district councils and the not-for-profit group Art Friends Warwickshire.
In 2021, Robottom and fellow artist N4t4 painted the Elephant Wash, located on Mill Road in Leamington
The idea for the mural came from Robottom's fascination with a local slope that leads down to the river, an area commonly known as the Elephant Wash or Elephant Walk.
Robottom explained that the concept was inspired by stories of Sam Lockhart, a well-known circus owner, who supposedly used to lead his elephants down from one of the side streets at the top of Leamington, along the Terrace, and down to the river.
According to the tale, the elephants would then be washed with brushes and enjoy a playful splash in the water.
However, Robottom noted that this version of events isn't entirely accurate.
He explained: "I've done a lot of research and the only credible mention I can find suggests that the elephants may have been taken into the river much further upstream, near Riverside House."
As a rolling event, the Mural Festival will coincide with this year's Art in the Park festival, scheduled for 2–3 August 2025.
"We've provided artists for Art in the Park since the very beginning, and we're back again this year," Robottom said.
"We've got a great lineup, including some amazing artists who haven't painted in the park before so I'm really excited."
Brinkworks is currently open to sponsors and asks anyone interested in a specific mural or with premises with a suitable wall for a new mural to get in touch via [email protected].
Find out more information about Leamington's Mural Festival here.
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