The People's Gallery: street art opposite The Box

Plymouth's city centre has a new reason to stop and look up, and it is not a permanent fixture. The People's Gallery is a community street art installation that has taken over the hoardings opposite The Box, the city's museum and art gallery, and it is as much about the people behind it as the work on the walls. It was unveiled on 9 May 2025 as part of an ongoing campaign to transform neglected spaces, and it is a good example of how a bit of paint can change the feel of a street.

The numbers are the first thing that strike you. There are 80 paintings in total, and they come from a range of participants aged from six to 88. That age span is the whole point: the project was built to show that art is for everyone, not just a small group of professionals. Mike Vosper, who runs the group behind it, has described it as "the people's gallery for the people of Plymouth", and the result is a wall that feels genuinely local rather than something dropped in from elsewhere. The plan is for the art to stay up for as long as the hoardings remain, so it is worth catching while it is there.

The group responsible is Plymouth Artists Together, or PAT, and they have been at this for years. Since 2020, they have been producing legal street art in public spaces with the backing of Plymouth City Council, turning abandoned bridges, ugly sub-stations, forgotten buildings, old passageways and construction scaffolding into something worth looking at. The People's Gallery came about after the council approached them to see if they could do something useful with the space, an idea that grew out of similar work they had done on Union Street. It is a natural extension of what they have been doing across the city.

PAT is a larger operation than it might first appear. Their Facebook page has more than 2,000 followers, and the group pulls together around 60 artists: 15 professional street artists, four paid muralists and about 40 amateur artists who contribute for the love of it. That mix is what gives their work its character, and it is why the People's Gallery feels so varied. If you enjoy this kind of thing, it is not the only place to look: PAT has set up other outdoor galleries on Union Street, in Millbay and in Honicknowle, so a walk around the city can turn into a bit of an art trail.

One of their more recent pieces is worth seeking out if you are in the area. Over on Buckwell Street, a National Grid sub-station has been turned into a mural called 'Siren's Song', by the artist SpraySaint, which shows a siren luring a ship onto the rocks. It is a good example of how they take a blank, industrial wall and turn it into something that actually rewards a second look.

And because the People's Gallery sits right opposite The Box, it makes for an easy afternoon. The Box is free, open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday, and it has a lot to see inside, so you can pair a stroll past the street art with a proper look around the galleries. Between the two, it is a reminder that art in Plymouth does not only live inside a museum.