Street artist Loretto is challenged by police in Primrose Hill

A STREET artist who was painting a mural to celebrate the NHS in Primrose Hill was stopped in his tracks after a resident called the police on him.

Loretto, whose stencil art can be seen across Camden’s walls, had begun painting a nurse in a signature blue uniform in Rothwell Street on Sunday afternoon. A police officer soon showed up, confiscated his 30 different-coloured paints and hit him with a £55 fine.

“The police have seen me many times while I’m working,” Loretto told the New Journal. “I don’t really have many problems with them. So it’s unusual that something happened. They’ve never stopped me before, which I’m grateful for.”

The artist added: “They were quite polite, really. They weren’t bad with me but the action was a bit over the top.”

He said the officer confirmed that someone from the area had rung the police.

Loretto completed the same mural in Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town, a while ago (pictured above) and said the design was a tribute to the NHS and their hard work during Covid, which he said is still relevant today because it was a world­wide historic moment.

He said: “It’s my interpretation of a nurse taking a break and she’s trying to compose herself and feeling a bit sad.”

The same artwork has remained untouched in Prince of Wales Road

Resident Ronald Hooberman, who was walking past at the time, said the artwork had appeared in a protected conservation area.

He added: “I don’t know who called the police – one rarely sees them in the area these days – or the eventual outcome. But when I came on the scene in my street they were engaged in a prolonged conversation with the artist during the course of which they bagged up some of his kit and put it in their van.

“The half-finished work is still there, on the flank wall of the corner house in Chalcot Crescent.”

A month ago Loretto painted a mural of two fish and chip characters busking on the street at 317 Kentish Town Road as part of his Urban Animal Mythology series. He said he was “pissed off” when he found it had been painted over in black just four days after he had finished it.

The half-done painting in Rothwell Street

While some artists believe protecting work goes against the transient essence of street art, Loretto is in favour of protection.

He said: “Just because it’s on the streets, there are people who do not see the artistic height of these artworks. Rather than painted over, they should be protected so that they last, so people could visit them as they visit artworks in museums.”