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The charity making life better by water

Bringing street art to the canalside

We’re turning unloved spaces alongside canals into beautiful places, with the help of local artists and community groups across the country.

Cleaning up antisocial graffiti and repairing the damage it causes in the areas around our canals and rivers costs us about £1m per year. It's particularly difficult in cities, where bridges, buildings and boundary walls are often targeted. Together with communities, we've come up with a creative solution to help put colour and life back into vandalised spaces.

We're creating a national street art trail on our urban canals. We hope it will encourage people to use some of these less-visited stretches and enjoy the work of local artists. The art not only replaces the antisocial graffiti, but also represents the different people who make up the local community and their stories.

Cities including Sheffield, Oxford, London, Leicester, Coventry and Birmingham, already have some street art along their canals, but watch this creative space as new art in new locations will be added soon.

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We'd love to tell you more

Our newsletter is packed full of exciting updates and stories of how our charity keeps canals alive.

Last Edited: 18 March 2024

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