Robin May wrote:

The bridge I'm talking about is not like that. It's an ugly concrete
structure and the work on it is better than art I've seen in galleries.
I'm pretty sure that it is authorised by the council or at the very
least known about and accepted. The graffiti on it is not threatening
or scary, it doesn't represent urban decay in the way broken windows or
walls covered in tags on council estates do. It looks like something
that members of the community have put a lot of time and effort into
improving the appearance of. This graffiti has more in common with
things like the (organised by the school) painting done by school
children on the side of Upminster Station than it does with the sort of
stuff done by people like TOX.

Agreed. I was in a taxi last night and somewhere between Essex Road and
Dalston I think was a rown of shops with their metal roller shutters
down.

I assume that they had the agreement of the shop-owners, but the whole
row had had the "artistic graffiti done on it. It was done very well,
and looks a whole lot better than a row of grey metal roller shutters.

(The same thing is very common in Paris too.)

The results are good: the "artists" have a legal outlet, the shops still
look normal in the day when the shutters are up and they don't look as
desolate, grim and threatening when the shutters are down at night.