Celebration Station, a small independent card, gift, balloon and partyware shop at 125 Victoria Road, New Brighton, has had its shopfront transformed in a community-funded commission led by Wirral In The Loop, the small-business networking community, and delivered by New Brighton Creative Futures CIC (NBCF). The painter is Liverpool graphic artist and mural painter Andrew Wolfenden.
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The project began when In The Loop founder Katy Elliott heard about the shop’s situation and offered to fund the work through In The Loop. The money came from the community itself: the proceeds of In The Loop’s monthly raffle, and the £25 a year its members pay to advertise on the In The Loop website. She then brought the commission to NBCF, who had the relationships to place the right artist on the wall.
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NBCF’s Creative Director, Rory Wilmer, worked directly with Andrew on the design, the concept and the execution rhythm — a working partnership on the creative side alongside Andrew’s authorship of the piece — and covered materials, permissions, prep and access equipment for delivery.
The shop is run single-handed by owner Paula Rogan. Like independent traders across the country, she is navigating rising business rates and shifting consumer behaviour — and, encouragingly, the beginnings of a real shift back towards shopping local. Community-funded investment in independent shopfronts is one of the small, practical ways that turn gets accelerated: a shopfront quote of the kind an established business builds in as a marketing spend is often more than a sole-trader independent can carry alone, and this is one of the gaps a community around a town can quietly close.
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Andrew painted a bright new shopfront frame around the shutter — playful colour, bold typography, unmistakably a shop — sitting alongside the existing geometric mural on the wall above rather than competing with it. It becomes the newest addition to the OpenAIR Gallery, the open-air street-art collection NBCF stewards across New Brighton’s Victoria Quarter.
Supporting the initiative alongside In The Loop and NBCF was Rockpoint Leisure / Rockpoint Records, led by Dan Davies — the company that originated the New Brighton mural scene in late 2017 and continues to provide practical support and Victoria Quarter backing for community commissions of this kind.
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The new work was formally inaugurated on Wednesday 2 September 2026, with Councillor Mary Jordan, Mayor of Wirral, joining Katy Elliott and members of Wirral In The Loop alongside Paula, Andrew, NBCF and Rockpoint at 125 Victoria Road. NBCF welcomes the Mayor’s presence as one more sign that Wirral Council is beginning to visibly recognise the value of what is being built in the Victoria Quarter.
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Katy, who owns 5 Star Food Safety consultancy, said at the unveiling: “Thank you all for coming, and thank you to New Brighton Creative Futures and the OpenAIR Gallery, to Rockpoint Records and to everyone in In The Loop. Together we have managed to give one of our In The Loop members a brand new shopfront. It is tough for independents to survive in this day and age, so we stepped in to help. And the star of the show has to be Andrew Wolfenden, the artist. Thank you.”
Paula Rogan said: “I would just like to thank In The Loop, Danny and Rory, and especially Andrew, for this absolutely superb sign. I am honoured to have had this help. Hopefully it is onwards and upwards from here. To every other independent out there: keep going, hang on in there, and everyone, please shop local.”
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Rory Wilmer said: “This is what our CIC is all about. We are not for profit, and every donation and every pound we receive goes straight back into the community: supporting local businesses, and supporting local, national and international artists to create and expand the OpenAIR Gallery so that everyone can enjoy free art and creativity on their own streets. None of it happens without the generosity of residents and organisations like In The Loop and Rockpoint, and we still hope Wirral Council will see the value of what is being built in this quarter and get behind it properly.”
Daniel Davies added: “The OpenAIR Gallery is one of the key strands of our regeneration: bringing art to the streets, free of charge. Look around you. The old post office over there was built in 1868. Once Upon a Tide is in a building from 1879, and that is about to have a refresh like this one too. These buildings are beautiful and they are not going to be built again.”
He continued: “The art makes people stop and appreciate not just the architecture but a street they might walk down every day. You walk up Hope Street to the station every morning, and then one day you look up and see Martin Luther King on the wall, or a message of hope. We have fantastic artists, local, national and international, and it is all free. It is one of the main reasons to visit New Brighton now, alongside a creative scene that takes in music, poetry and performance art.”
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The @hello_new_brighton Instagram post during painting reached approximately 7,000 views with 110 likes. The day after completion, Paula posted the finished shopfront on Facebook with public thanks to Katy, Andrew, Rory, Dan and the In The Loop community — describing the result as “a shopfront to be proud of”.
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CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED IN NEW BRIGHTON’S STREET ART PROJECT
