Lewisham will be home to the UK’s first mural school following a successful funding campaign by a long-standing community street-art initiative.

The Lewisham School of Muralism will train up to 36 young people in the process of creating public artworks, from identifying spaces and engaging communities to designing and painting.

Students from various departments at Goldsmiths will be working alongside local artists from disadvantaged backgrounds, to "respond creatively to the challenges of urban living."

The school's founder, Patricio Forrester, is behind a number of well-known murals in the area through his work with Artmongers, most famously 'His and Hers', which has overlooked Deptford market since 2002.

Mr Forrester said: "After nearly 20 years of painting murals, we felt it was time to pass on our skills to the younger generation.

"The Lewisham School of Muralism will teach the process of creating murals based on our experience and we’re very excited to get started this Autumn.

"We also cherish the possibility of inviting other artists to help us put together the course, visit us and diversify our approach.

"By the time Lewisham becomes the London Borough of Culture in 2022, we will have new teams of young muralists ready to make the most of this great opportunity”.

Supported by Brewers, Network Rail and Goldsmiths, the school will run three courses of ten weeks each, over a period of 18 months.

Each course will have 12 students, who will have the chance to produce two murals for the community.

The School of Muralism is part of ‘Crowdfund London’, a joint initiative between the Mayor of London and the UK’s leading civic crowdfunding platform Spacehive, which gives Londoners the chance to pitch creative, community-led projects and secure funding of up to £50K from the GLA.

In addition an initial pledge of £25,000 from the Mayor of London, the campaign has received a coalition of generous backing including £21K from Goldsmiths, £6,000 worth of paint from Brewers, as well as contributions from 8 Wards in Lewisham Council and three hundred local residents.

The walls will be provided by Network Rail, Lewisham Homes, Lewisham Hospital and Lewisham Shopping Centre amongst others.

Artmongers has also secured funding from the Arts Council of England’s Emergency Fund for Organisational Development to incorporate Education to their Mural Painting Programme.