Ian Dury mural appears close to singer’s South London 70s squat home “Catshit Mansions”

Mural appears on long abandoned Cricketers Pub

A mural depicting legendary singer Ian Dury has appeared close to the building in which he penned many of his classic tracks.

Dury squatted what he dubbed “Catshit Mansions” – or Oval Mansions as it’s more officially known – overlooking the Surrey Cricket Ground during the 1970s and wrote hits like ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ with co-writer Chaz Jankel.

The Banksy-style painting – credited to ‘Stewy’, a stencil artist specialising in stencils of “groundbreaking misfits rebels freaks and obscure Icons in psychogeographic locations” – is based on one of a series of photos taken outside the building, described as an art commune. It appeared over Christmas on the side of the now closed Kennington Cricketers pub, which was once part of the London pub rock scene and played host to acts like The Pogues and Geno Washington before closing in the early 90s.

The pub also has a close connection the Dury legacy as the singer came up with the name The Blockheads for his backing band, after the nickname he had for the Sunday clientele of the Cricketers, fond of showing off up their souped up cars outside.

Dury’s son and an increasingly lauded artist in his own right, Baxter Dury, lived with his father in the squat and told Juno Daily about the “Dickensian” conditions in the squat in an exclusive interview with us before Christmas. Read the full interview here….

Baxter, pictured below, releases his ‘best of’ album Mr Maserati on Heavenly Records on Feb 11. Pre-order your vinyl copy here