Abergavenny artist Frankie Winters on creating graffiti walls in town

It comes as the council was forced to clear up several graffiti sprees in Abergavenny last year – including one in the town centre – which meant maintenance officers had to be taken off other jobs to attend to the vandalism.

Today in #Abergavenny our officers are being redeployed from road maintenance and tree cutting to go to the town centre because some mindless vandals went on a graffiti spree on Monday night. What a waste of our officers’ time and taxpayers’ money 😡 pic.twitter.com/mCEAIJAz89

— Richard John (@RichardJohnRJ) August 18, 2021

Frankie Winters, who’s a graffiti artist living in the town, said he’s noticed a sharp rise in graffiti pieces in different locations around Abergavenny.

“We’ve seen quite a massive uptake in a short amount of time,” Mr Winters told the Argus.

Graffiti has been on the rise in Abergavenny town centre. (Picture: Frankie Winters)

“The bus station has been hit repeatedly over the last year or so and the police even got involved. There’s also been lots of tagging around the post office too.”

He’s said he understands the frustration from residents about how the graffiti spike could be damaging to Abergavenny’s traditional market town image.

“You don’t really expect to see lots of graffiti in Abergavenny,” he added.

“So, I can totally understand why people get frustrated when sprees do happen as we’ve seen recently – it’s not in keeping with the character of the town.”

Graffiti on electrical boxes out the Kings Arms pub. (Picture: Frankie Winters)

But Mr Winters is now at the forefront of a campaign to create a new, legal space in the town for graffiti – which he believes will allow artists from Abergavenny and beyond a chance to show off their work whilst keeping wanton vandalism out of the town centre.

He’s picked out the underpass between Llanfoist cemetery and the garden centre as a possible location.

Llanfoist underpass where Mr Winters is proposing a 'legal' graffiti wall be placed. (Picture: Frankie Winters)

“I think having a space outside the town centre is important – I get why people want to keep the town centre the way it is.

“But I’ve spoken with plenty of locals and passers-by in the Llanfoist underpass and all have met me with a positive attitude towards the idea.

“I really do think it would improve the problems with graffiti in the town.”

Mr Winters, who was arrested when he was 13 years old for graffiti vandalism, thinks the space might also go as far as changing people’s attitudes towards graffiti.

Frankie said legal graffiti areas helped him develop his craft. (Picture: Frankie Winters)

“It’s a form of artistic expression – when I lived in Cardiff you would see great graffiti artworks in the city – it’s more accepted and respected there.

“Which is why having a graffiti ‘safe spot’ where artists can practise without the worry of it being a criminal offence would be great. It’d also brighten up the underpass too!”

Mr Winters is now in the process of talks with Monmouthshire County Council about the plans.

Monmouthshire County Council was conacted for comment.