Stunning tribute to London health workers painted on side of L&Q home

The side of an east London building has been adorned with an impressive mural to thank Allied Health Professionals, and the work they do across North East London. 

Talented street artists from Wood Street Walls painted the image on the side of an L&Q building on the corner of Vicarage Road in Leyton in Waltham Forest. 

L&Q is a charitable housing association, with around 250,000 people in more than 105,000 homes, primarily across London and the South East.

The mural shows an image of a pair of hands, tending to peppers growing in a garden, taken at Gardening for Health group project for local Bengali women in Tower Hamlets.  The ring shown on the hand is the national Allied Health Professions logo.

The artwork pays tribute to all the efforts of North East London Health and Care Partnership Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) Allied Health Professionals and the awareness they raise of health and care careers for our local communities. 

The Gardening for Health group project is a group for women who experience chronic pain within the wider contexts of reduced mobility, long term physical health conditions and related emotional distress. The sessions were designed by Dr Sharen Hayre, a clinical psychologist in Tower Hamlets who led and developed the gardening project with AHP colleagues.

The mural, commissioned by  the North East London Health & Care Partnership, promotes career pathways into the 14 Allied Health Professions within the NHS in BAME communities.  London Borough of Waltham Forest helped partially fund the mural with Wood Street Walls and approached L&Q to take part in this campaign. The team were excited to hear that L&Q were supportive of the project. 

Stephen Sandford Chair of the North East London Health and Care Partnership AHP Council said: “Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are a wonderfully diverse range of professions including, art therapists, drama therapists, music therapists, chiropodists/podiatrists, dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, osteopaths, prosthetists and orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, diagnostic radiographers, therapeutic radiographers, speech and language therapists. They can be found working across all our health and care services in North East London.”

Wood Street Walls founder, Mark Clack, said: “It was quite a significant effort to complete given the size and scale of the wall and having to deliver from scaffolding rather than a scissor lift, due to the immediate access under the wall. 

“It took the artist Gabriel Pitcher three weeks to complete, with support from Wood Street Walls artist Dave Smith aka HATCH and a new up and coming artist and student at local college Big Creative Education's Jack Lubel, who has helped us on our projects on before.”

The street art team has created around 150 murals in and around the Waltham Forest area, over the last six years.

Many of them shine a light on social issues, including homelessness, violent crime and the frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The response on social media and the local groups to our latest piece has been fantastic,” Mark continued.

“We think the local connection promoting health and wellbeing through physical activity like gardening and promoted through public art can help people explore the area and look at the art that can be found on their doorsteps, rather than in museums. Leyton High Road is building up its number of murals in the area, and we’re so grateful to L&Q for being so accommodating. 

“We’ve worked with them before as we’ve asked a couple of times to use different walls, and it’s always been really collaborative.”

Dr Sharen Hayre said: “The gardening project provides an integrated therapies model to re-engage women with their abilities and strengths by incorporating Psychology, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. It is co-facilitated with Care Navigation and Rehab and Peer Support Workers.

“By allowing women to connect with nature and be amongst other women who have similar experiences the project supports improvements in both physical and emotional/mental health wellbeing.” 

Head of Housing for London East & East Anglia at L&Q, Jennifer Marius, said: “We’re so pleased that we were able to provide the canvas for such a beautiful mural, celebrating such a worthwhile cause. 

“Our residents are fully supportive of the idea and we’re so impressed with the completed piece.”