The Wind in the Willows mural on a Plymouth wall

Plymouth's city centre has a new wall worth stopping for. Back in May, local graffiti artist Jordan Lauder, working as SpraySaint, unveiled a large-scale mural of woodland creatures from The Wind in the Willows, and it has quickly become one of the more charming additions to the city's street art scene.

The story behind it is half the appeal. The resident who owns the property, and who has lived there for about twelve years, had named her home 'Toad Hall' after the book and decided to commission a mural after seeing a stag piece over on Morley Court in the west end. She is a regular at online graffiti puzzles, so she knew what she wanted, though the first draft did not quite hit the mark. She fed Lauder specific details from the book, and he came back with the willows, the countryside and the stream that now cover the wall. He pulled it together in roughly six hours, spread over three and a half days, and the resident kept him going with chairs and refreshments while he worked. The location adds its own drama: the River Tamar runs behind the house, and at high tide the water comes right up the wall.

It is not a one-off, either. The mural sits within a wider, growing scene that includes Second World War street art signs marking the worst bombing raids and portraits of women. Much of it is backed by Plymouth Artists Together, the group Mike Vosper set up to get legal street art into public spaces with the council's blessing. PAT works with the council, private owners and local businesses to turn neglected spaces around, and they have put up outdoor galleries on Union Street, in Millbay and in Honicknowle. They have commissioned large-scale work from artists like SpraySaint before, including a renewal of Whitleigh Bridge with a fox, a squirrel and a weasel, and a piece called 'Siren's Song' on a National Grid substation on Buckwell Street. The group runs with more than 2,000 Facebook followers and around 60 artists, including fifteen professional street artists and four paid muralists, with materials and professional fees often raised through Crowdfunder appeals and grants — a £500 donation from The Arts Society South Devon paid for a mural of cute monsters on a Bath Place West substation.

If you are in the centre and want to make a day of it, The Box museum on Tavistock Place is a natural next stop. It is free, open 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays, Christmas and New Year's, with the Cottonian Research Room available by appointment Tuesday to Saturday. It holds six collections — art, human history, natural history, film, photography and archival material — and you will find thousands of natural history specimens and a life-size replica of a woolly mammoth. It was named Art Fund Museum of the Year 2026 and voted 'Best Arts, Culture and Theatre' venue in 2025, so it is well worth the walk. Current exhibitions include Echoes of Us, running until 20 September, and Gillian Ayres: A Life in Colour until 4 October, with Pro Grip (How to be Humans) on until 21 October. There is a Beryl Cook Comedy Tour on Saturday 26 September and a Coffee Rave on Tuesday 29 September, so there is plenty to build a visit around.