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Why so sad, Wirral?
New figures put the Wirral near the top of England's depression tables, with roughly one in four adults in New Brighton diagnosed. We've spent years putting colour back on these streets. Now we're going out to ask whether any of it has made people feel better.
A shopfront to be proud of
A small card shop on Victoria Road, a networking group that funded it from raffle tickets and £25 memberships, and an artist painting his first full shopfront. This is how the OpenAIR Gallery grows.
The man the starlings wait for
Kenny Dunn has kept New Brighton’s streets clean for over ten years. Every morning, half a dozen starlings walk with him along the promenade, waiting at his feet when he stops. This month the London artist Dotmasters painted him on a wall.
The good morning bench
Eleven o'clock on a Saturday morning in Vale Park, and I have never seen so many dogs sitting so nearly still. Cain's bench is in place at the top of the hill, the town raised 161% of the target to put it there, and the money left over has gone to the dogs still waiting for their homes.
Written out of the plan
Wirral is drawing up the document that will shape this borough until 2045. It doesn’t mention New Brighton once. Here’s what we’ve told them — and how you can tell them too.
What a wall is worth
Eight years ago you could stand on Victoria Road at two in the afternoon and hear your own footsteps. Today the average sold price in CH45 is £248,894 — sixteen per cent above the old 2022 peak — and Wirral has just posted the third-highest house price rise in England. Not all of that is the murals. But a good deal more of it than most people think.
Two Stars, and the Long Habit of Letting Go
New Brighton came 108th of 118 in the Which? seaside survey — two stars for the beach, one for things to do. We could argue with it. Instead we read it, honestly and all the way through: where the scorecard is fair, what forty-seven visitors never saw, and what it would take to stop being the end of the line.
A Tribute to MARTIN PARR — and how New Brighton can make it Happen
A new mural and public programme celebrating Martin Parr and The Last Resort — created in collaboration with the Martin Parr Foundation.
New Brighton Creative Futures is developing a major new public artwork honouring one of Britain’s most important photographers — Martin Parr — and his landmark series The Last Resort, made here in New Brighton.
New Brighton Is Already the Cluster Government Is Asking For
When government talks about “hotbeds of creative excellence”, “clusters of cutting-edge creative businesses” and “replicating success through place-based investment”, it is describing New Brighton almost word for word.
Thank You for Shaping the Future of the INSA Mural
A little over a week ago we opened a simple question to the town: what should happen next with the INSA mural on Victoria Road — restore the original, or invite INSA back to create something new? We didn’t expect the level of response we got.
The Future of the Insa Mural: Restore or Reimagine?
Insa’s mural on the Post Office building is one of the defining pieces in the OpenAIR Gallery. It’s scale, colour and presence set the tone early on for what Victoria Quarter could become.
But time has caught up with it. The surface is failing in multiple areas and the wall now needs proper repair and a full repaint.
So this is a real decision point.
Recognition That Belongs to a Community
I was honoured to receive a Wirral Award. It carries my name, but it does not belong to me. It reflects the work of New Brighton Creative Futures and, more importantly, the people behind it. The artists who have committed their talent to the town. The volunteers who have given their time. The supporters, donors and sponsors who have backed the idea and helped turn it into something tangible.
Reanimating New Brighton
Over the past few days we’ve been quietly working through boxes of history.
Victorian promenade scenes. Wartime photographs. Art Deco posters. Seaside postcards. Faded images from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Moments captured in silver nitrate and ink, then left to sit still for decades.
We took those photographs and, using generative AI, began to bring them back to life.
Not as a gimmick. Not as a filter. Not as a one-click trick.
The State of the Art
There are winters in New Brighton when the sea feels like a neighbour. And there are winters when it feels like a judge. This has been one of the judging ones.
Something is growing in New Brighton
February is usually about Valentine’s cards, supermarket roses and predictable gestures of love. But this year, something else is happening in New Brighton.
Statement: Public art, free expression, and vandalism in New Brighton
It hurts to see public art in New Brighton vandalised like this.
New Brighton Creative Futures exists to support artists and creative expression in the public realm. We recognise freedom of expression as a protected right in the UK (Human Rights Act 1998, Article 10). But that right is not a licence to damage other people’s work or property.
Spraying over existing murals, defacing buildings, and repeatedly tagging areas of the promenade and storm channel is not “street art” in any meaningful sense — it is vandalism. Graffiti without the owner’s consent is widely treated as criminal damage.
Joint Statement from Friends of Marine Lake & New Brighton Creative Futures
Friends of Marine Lake, in collaboration with New Brighton Creative Futures, remain deeply committed to celebrating and enhancing New Brighton's Marine Lake as a cultural and community landmark.
Penfold’s “Torn but Not Broken”: The Lost Mural That Sparked a Street’s Revival — and the Ultra-Rare Print That Survives
In the early days of Victoria Road’s cultural reawakening, long before New Brighton’s mural trail became a destination, one artwork stood out as a turning point. High above Rockpoint Records, stretching across the façade in a blaze of colour, Mr Penfold painted Torn but Not Broken — a mural defined by its abstract, pattern-rich surfaces, sliced open with his signature “torn layer” effect.
Limited Edition SNIK Prints Released to Support New Brighton’s Next Landmark Mural
Every major mural in New Brighton begins long before a spray can touches a wall. It starts with conversations, ideas, small acts of support and a community deciding — together — that a new piece of art is worth bringing into the world.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LAKE
Some moments crystallise what New Brighton is becoming. Friday’s inauguration of the Captain Mike Lowe mural was one of them — a gathering of people who care deeply about this town, its stories, and its future. And in the middle of all that warmth and energy, something quite special happened: Spirit of the Lake became part of the day.