Children have their artwork on display in east London on public hoardings

Children at a school in London’s East End have had their artwork put on display on public hoardings at a development along the main A11 Mile End Road.

The youngsters from Wellington Primary in Bow were invited by the developers to submit artwork designed around the theme “What Bow means to me”.

The pictures represented how they see their neighbourhood.

The best were then chosen by a panel of judges to be printed onto the hoardings at Linden Homes’ development on the old St Clement’s hospital site.

“It was a tough job,” Linden Homes’ marketing director Karen Roake admitted.

“All the entries, which had to take account of what would look good scaled-up on the hoardings, made it difficult for us to choose which ones.”

One winner was selected from each year in the end.

The young artists, aged six to 11, were invited to the site when the hoardings were eventually unveiled.

The school has also been given £200 by the developers as a ‘thank you’ to the pupils. Teachers are putting the money towards art supplies for the school year ahead.

Wellington Primary’s deputy Head Mandy Kellegher said: “The children were engaged by the topic ‘What Bow means to me’ and used art skills they’ve learnt in school such as printing, painting, collage and drawing.”

Meanwhile, work continues behind the hoardings to transform the old Grade II-listed Victorian buildings which are being refurbished and converted into new apartments.

Some homes on the six-acre site are also part of London’s first land trust scheme where the land is retained for future generations to keep purchasing costs down, while the flats themselves are a quarter of the London property market price, to be sold back to the trust when families move on.