The Long Wall background
from page 5 of The Round Hill Reporter June 2016.
Plans for improvement
Now this is not a clear-cut issue, indeed what to do, or not to do, about this wall at the west end of Upper Lewes Road and running up Wakefield Road is fraught with conflicting views.
It is certainly illegal to paint on someone else’s wall without their permission - it constitutes criminal damage. But it is becoming the norm to feel free to paint on what is perceived as an un-owned wall, and certainly changing this wall from tagged and spray-painted to magnolia is providing a new canvas for people holding that view.
Whilst we painted it on Saturday 21st May the most common remark I heard was essentially: “Why bother, they’ll only do it again?” The first tagging happened just 45 minutes after we left, and by midnight on Saturday a guy was busy putting up his complex mark on the wall. Both these additions were over-painted on Sunday morning.
The three local associations of residents have all agreed that a long-term solution is needed, and we think a combination of commissioned artwork and self-clinging plants might be that solution. We are looking for artists who might undertake commissions. What kind of artwork? Perhaps it should be naturalistic in colour and design, perhaps reflecting the qualities of the three residential areas (Triangle, Round Hill and Sylvan Hall) or some aspect of their histories. As for self-clinging plants, you can see the exact effect on the western boundary wall of Buckingham Palace gardens, near Victoria Station. There is a four inch strip of soil at the foot of the wall from which a variety of climbing plants are growing. We would undertake to trim the plants back so that they do not interfere with pedestrian use of the pavement.
Perhaps the people with the greatest right to have their views heard are those who live opposite the wall, who live with the wall most of the time. We are still hoping to engage with more residents, and perhaps this item will encourage further.
This page was last updated by Ted on 19-Apr-2026