Family turn heads with sari-inspired house mural

A Brighton family have literally stopped traffic with a new mural inspired by a sari pattern on their new home.

Poppy Jaman and Jaan Madan moved to Southampton Street in Hanover in January, and immediately knew they wanted to make a splash when decorating the outside.

Since the distinctive red and gold mural went up, it has been snapped and posted on social media, and Poppy says she’s even seen cyclists stopping in the middle of the road to have a look.

She said: “One of the reasons we wanted to move to the centre of Brighton is that it’s so colourful.

“Our old house was a Grade II listed cottage in Lewes and we couldn’t do anything with it.

“We were inspired by murals in Washington where there’s a whole area where there’s murals which have been created out of adversity.

“That inspired the idea of making a statement with our home.

“I wanted to not just paint something that I love. If you just love something that’s enough, but I also wanted to say here’s a bit of my identity.

“I collect saris and Jamdani is a signature saris of Bangladesh. It’s got a colonial past to it.

“We have come out of a massive pandemic and mental health of our country is diminishing and if I can put something that makes look or at least makes people just pause for a moment.

“Since the mural’s been finished, we’ve watched people literally standing still in the middle of the road on their bikes. People just passing and taking a moment is the impact we wanted to have.”

The mural is inspired by the Jamdani weave saree, the signature saree of Dhaka, Bangladesh, which dates back at least as far back as 300BC.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Jamdani fabric – so fine it was known as ‘woven air’ – was one of the most highly coveted commodities in Mughal courts and further afield. However, by the mid-19th century, Jamdani had become almost extinct.

Poppy has written more about her relationship with the Jamdani design and its colonial history here.