Woman fed up with 'eyesore' graffiti on building

A woman has transformed a dilapidated building as part of her efforts to spruce up her home town.

Chrisha Góes said she was fed up with the graffiti on the doors and windows of Swindon's tented market on Commercial Road. She bought her own cleaning spray and cloths then spent hours scrubbing the building over the weekend.

She said: "The graffiti has been an eyesore and every time I would come to town it would just make me sad. A lot of people enter the town centre that way and it [the Tented Market] is right in front of their eyes."

A spokesperson for the owners of the tented market, CJV Properties Limited, said: "We would like to thank Chrishna and her team for their clean-up efforts."

The Tented Market opened in 1994, at the corner of Commercial Road and Farnsby Street. It was built at the site of Swindon's original town centre market, which had operated between 1892 to 1977.

It closed in August 2017 and has laid empty ever since.

The CJV Properties Limited spokesperson added: "We have had many similar problems with vandalism and break ins over the years and look to address these issues when they occur, but there is a balance as the likely outcome for the property will be demolition when redevelopment can move forward."

Góes plans to return to the building with friends over future weekends in January to continue clearing the graffiti.

She added: "We will continue on a few more weekends to try and get most of it out.

"It's better to do something about it than do nothing and hopefully it will cheer people up. The before and after results is really what keep us going."

Góes has lived in Swindon for ten years and also litter-picks across town with the group Keep Swindon Tidy.

"I've been very grateful to Swindon because I came here ten years ago from India, and Swindon has given me a better life. I thought, why not, I have spare time on my hands, why not do litter picking or graffiti removal.

"Hopefully we can get more litter out of places and keep Swindon beautiful," she explained.

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