{"id":361889,"date":"2026-01-10T01:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361889\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T01:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:08:08","slug":"woman-transforms-swindon-building-plagued-with-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361889\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman transforms Swindon building plagued with graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Chrisha G\u00f3es, who has lived in Swindon for 10 years, decided to start scrubbing off the graffiti which covers the Swindon Tented Market on Commercial Road.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt gives a very bad vibe, as you go into town. It is not very welcoming,\u201d said Chrisha.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Chrisha is part of Keep Swindon Tidy, and often comes into town to clean and litter pick.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cEvery time we would come in, the graffiti would just bother us. It is an eye sore,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t feel like people are taking care of Swindon.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Along with a mother and son from Keep Swindon Tidy, Hayley and Heath Ridgewell, Chrisha set to work cleaning the back end of the tented market, opposite McDonald\u2019s and Boots.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  They will be returning at other weekends to do more, with a particular focus on the side of the market facing Commercial Road.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Swindon\u2019s original town centre market operated between 1892 and 1977.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In 1994, The Tented Market opened at its site at the corner of Farnsby Street and Commercial Road.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It has remained empty since its closure in August 2017.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A spokesperson for the owners of the tented market, CJV Properties Limited, told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cvgr68yj404o?fbclid=IwY2xjawPJuQFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeVDLqXU_FYG23_orEHLzK8c1jPzntuUAj9WhC2hu9pxGCh_EDx4-dalWQW1Y_aem_3dyjvRyZkEhEUGG8Vm89dw&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BBC<\/a>: \u201cWe would like to thank Chrisha and her team for their clean-up efforts.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Chrisha said graffiti in Swindon is a problem that goes beyond the market.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She said she has noticed it appearing on various shops that have closed down in the town centre.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A solution to this could be providing more designated places for people to paint graffiti, she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Chrisha said people have been \u201clovely\u201d about her clean up, with many stopping by to ask what she was doing.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She told the BBC: &#8220;I&#8217;ve been very grateful to Swindon because I came here ten years ago from India, and Swindon has given me a better life.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I thought, why not, I have spare time on my hands, why not do litter picking or graffiti removal.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chrisha G\u00f3es, who has lived in Swindon for 10 years, decided to start scrubbing off the graffiti which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-361889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}