The Rodney Street Tunnel may not be the most obvious of Broughton's attractions, but it's well worth a passing trip at the moment.
The pedestrian and National Cycle Route 75 between King George V Park and the Broughton Road Tesco was re-opened in July 2009, and as a well-visited thoroughfare slightly below the radar of passing police officers, has attracted the attention of graffiti and street artists who find themselves with sufficient wall space and time to express themselves fully.
New to the tunnel right now is this noir-ish portrait in black and white. Some twerp with all the sensibility of a cock-legged mongrel promptly added a spliff, but the economy of the original design remains obvious.
Unusually for much street art in Edinburgh, the example below seems to have been signed. If anyone can tell us more about the dynamic illegible word by Pedro, Gonzo, Skino, Salcefix, Angie, Julita and Kisiel – and the rumour that there may be a Polish connection – we'd love to know more.
The three interlocking pieces below are also hard to interpret ...
... whereas what this one lacks in technique it more than makes up for in amusing clarity.
An Animal Farm-like quality attends this fusion of human and pig faces.
Something about the perspective of its setting, something in the squashy roundness of the lettering and the soft colouring within adds a dizzying permeability to the word 'SOAK'.
What all these colourful additions mean, and how they interrelate, is a bit of a mystery. Despite frequent requests, local street artists are in no hurry to explain their work to the Spurtle or anyone else. That silence is more than a little frustrating, but the artists' lofty counter-cultural cool – one's sense of their hidden depths and lives lived out of view – is part of the works' appeal.
We hope the Rodney Street Tunnel continues to provide inspiration for them and their admirers for many years to come.
Other recent examples of local tunnel art have featured in Breaking news
(18.6.12; 16.1.13; 2.7.13; 28.7.13).
