Adding a dash of graffiti to Peterborough Museum. Whether you’re a fan of graffiti artwork or not, you’ll see a long history of it at the new Diesel Streets exhibition by Nathan ‘Nyces’ Murdoch, which opened last week at the museum. It’s basically a wall story of the graffiti around Peterborough and Stamford.
It shows the beginnings of his art and others’ around city places like the brick pits, derelict areas like Peterborough’s East station, play areas like Itter Park, and, if you remember it, the old Johnson’s frozen food factory, and of course corridors of Peterborough subways, always covered in some kind of colour good or bad. There was a turning point where the ‘scrawl’, turned into some actually good art. Artists started to show us what they could really do rather than just random scribbles.
Graffiti became a culture of youngsters expressing themselves with something they enjoyed doing, putting their name (tag) to them too. Several young vibe venues were a great gathering place for our youngters – skateboarding at Y2SK8 was popular back in the 2020s (The exhibition includes a mock set up of the old Y2SK8 park in Fletton.) alongside music, spray paints – it was a meeting point where there was something in common with someone. I recall taking our kids there to hang out, fall off boards and paint. Some places even enticed artists to come along and doodle with bare walls that needed covering with paint. It made it ‘their’ place.
There doesn’t seem to be anywhere like that now. There are places to buy paints and hang out, but maybe we need to build one from a disused council building so that youngsters have somewhere safe, cool, and friendly to go. (anyway that’s another issue)
We now see graffiti competitions and the setting up of professional street artists getting to work open spaces, city centre storytelling, home bedrooms and gardens. Obviously, it’s not just Nathan, there are loads more artists doing great works around the city too: Steve Crowe’s work on Angle Entertainment and Charters really brightens and heightens the buildings.
Nathan’s work seems to better itself every time he creates one – something poignant, something to shout about, something funny, something to remember. You’ll find artwork dotted around the city commissioned by Peterborough Positive; like Priestgate 1940’s mural – a reflection on what the street was in times gone by, Walter Cornelius pushing a pea and, of course, as Peterborough’s famous strongman back in the 70s & 80s, and the Cowgate cows hiding away a blank shop window.
Inside the museum you’ll find a double full size mural of a train which brilliantly encases the graffiti wall in the middle depicting the station. Onto some stunning works – a girl with a VR headset and a robot facing each other. Colours blending, fine detail being pulled together from hand to spray can. It really is an art!
Go see if you recognise any in the collages they have had printed up and not forgetting a selfie in front of ET and the phone box!
From Peterborough Museum: “Diesel Streets: A Peterborough Wall Story is a major solo exhibition by local street artist Nathan ‘Nyces’ Murdoch, charting over two decades of graffiti, mural culture, and lived experience on the walls of Peterborough.
Opening to the public from 7 February to 23 May 2026 at Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, the exhibition presents a raw and visually powerful narrative of a city told through spray paint, memory, and survival.”
