Attic Self Storage, has opened a brand new facility in Beckton today alongside an art display that features art created by local artist Matt Ponting and primary school students. The exhibition titled the “Beauty of Beckton” is a community-led initiative created to celebrate the local area. Children from local schools were asked to create a piece of artwork that depicts what they like or enjoy about the area.
As part of the initiative, Attic will be donating £1,250 to Richard House Children’s Hospice in Beckton, which supports families from several London boroughs including Newham, Barking, Dagenham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, and Hackney. Attic will also donate £500 worth of art and craft supplies to Ellen Wilkinson Primary School’s art department, for being the school with the highest number of artwork submissions.
Alyaan and Basel Zaidi, aged 6, are brothers that attend Royal Wharf Primary School and submitted artwork. Alyaan says: “I created an artwork to depict my favourite things in Beckton. My drawing is from my last school trip where we took the DLR and Uber boats around London and saw lots of cool landmarks.”
Basel also loves the Beckton DLR train station and wanted to get involved in the project and help raise money for a local cause: “I wanted to help raise money for my school and Richard House Children’s Hospice. My favourite place in Beckton is the DLR train station. I also love the Beckton Triangle because it has lots of stores like Pets at Home which is my favourite store.”
Local Beckton artist Matt Ponting has been commissioned to create a bespoke art installation inspired by the children’s artwork, which will be on display at Attic’s Beckton facility throughout August and September. Following the display, Attic will donate the artwork to Richard House Children’s Hospice. Matt has worked on numerous East London projects including the East Ham Nature Reserve and a large-scale mural celebrating the story of Stratford set to be unveiled in 2022.
Matt Ponting comments: “As a community artist living in Beckton, the chance to work with local school children is a dream job. I love this area, so it has been really fun finding out why they love it too. The artworks the children have created are eye-opening and inspiring and I’ll be using them as themes in my final piece which will be bright, colourful and optimistic.”
A spokesperson from Ellen Wilkinson Primary School adds: “It was great to see our students participate in such a great initiative and we are thrilled to receive the art supplies from Attic. These supplies will help us continue to support the artistic endeavours of our students. We wanted to get involved to showcase our community and help raise money for the Richard House Children’s Hospice.”
The new self-storage facility is located off the A13, in Claps Gate Retail Park in East London, and will create more storage space for local residents and businesses with 24/7 access. The site opens this August and offers the convenience of keyless electronic locks which customers control via an app.
CEO of Attic Self Storage, Frederic de Ryckman de Betz, comments: “At the heart of our values is a commitment to support local communities and charitable causes. The ‘Beauty of Beckton’ initiative is a wonderful way to display all that Beckton has to offer, and we are excited for the facility’s grand opening in August.”
The Beckton store showcases a modern and sustainable design with 868 steel units spanning 2247m square of land. The site is also equipped with free EV charging points for storage customers to encourage the use of electric vehicles.
