Thursday Doors – 17 September 2026

Doors 371 – Doors of Madeira (part II) – September 2025

For the second week running I am trying to get ahead of the game with Thursday Doors (I wrote this last week in a small pocket of time early one morning), because I am so busy at work before heading off for some September sun for a few days. I have to say that the need for sun is somewhat diminished, having had such a sunny and hot late spring and summer here in the UK this year, but the need for a break has never been so welcome. In fact, by the time you read this I will already be relaxing by a pool overlooking the Aegean Sea.

I have also had to interview for my own job (writing this in the past, although it hasn’t happened yet). I have been pooled with 16 colleagues for 10 posts. Most are good friends and we can’t all make the cut. This is unbelievably stressful, but I know too that it happens, and know I will have given it my best. It feels pretty awful that 37 years of continuous employment and loyalty will have boiled down to how I performed in a 1 hour interview last Monday. This is due to a restructure (cuts) in our Directorate, the culmination of decisions made some 8 years ago by the then Secretary of State, Liz Truss… remember her? Her legacy of destruction is long and deep. I mention this sorry tale simply because it is contributing to the stresses I am under at the moment, making it difficult to find time to do all the things I want, or like to do.

That’s quite enough of that I’m sure. On to happier things. This is the second post from our family holiday in Madeira last September and contains painted doors from a celebrated street in ther heart of Funchal, the capital of Madeira. I hope you enjoy this selection which left me like a dog with two tails while walking along this street.

Door with portrait and instrument, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with portrait and instrument, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with portrait, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with portrait, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Panelled door with fish eyes painted in each panel, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Panelled door with fish eyes painted in each panel, Travessa das Torres, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a bar scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a bar scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a stunning bakery scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a stunning bakery scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Colourful painted door, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Colourful painted door, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a painted character, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a painted character (le petit Prince?), Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a painted cliff scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025
Door with a painted cliff scene, Rua de Santa Maria, Funchal, Madeira, September 2025

So that’s it for another week. I am not sure I will be posting while I am on holiday, it just depends on how organised I am before going away. There weill be more from Madeira, that’s for sure. Have a lovely weekend.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.

7913. Stapleton Road

SPZero76, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
SPZero76, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

This is the brilliant third part of the UZI collaboration featuring characters from the comic series 2000AD by SPZero76, alongside Kid Crayon and Tera. These three have been smashing it with a few production walls this summer.

SPZero76, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
SPZero76, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

SPZero76 has created a fabulous scene, with a raccoon character dressed up as Judge Dredd and accompanied by a side-kick character with blue skin and a rifle. They are riding a rather large motorcycle through a desert dystopian landscape. Utterly fabulous.

7912. Temple Way (7)

Taboo, Temple Way, Bristol, August 2026
Taboo, Temple Way, Bristol, August 2026

Continuing with my rapid-fire posts, this was written yesterday on a train coming back to Bristol from Dorchester, because by the time this goes live I’ll be in the air somewhere over Greece (I hope) with a very early start.

Taboo, Temple Way, Bristol, August 2026
Taboo, Temple Way, Bristol, August 2026

A stunning new combination piece from Taboo just near the main entrance to Temple Meads Station, combining his anti-style lettering with a great rendition of Disney’s Pluto. He is so very good at these combination pieces, mixing the familiar with the less so.

7911. M32 roundabout J3 (795)

Zeks, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026
Zeks, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026

I think that Zeks might have some time on his hands, maybe he is ‘between jobs’ or simply made a decision to paint more this summer, but is is noticeable that he has painted quite a few pieces in the city recently.

Zeks, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026
Zeks, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026

This is a lovely piece of non-uniform writing on the roundabout. Full of beautiful soft colours and arrow patterns. Uniquely Zeksy in its design, one of the best pieces of writing I have seen from the artist to date.

7910. St Werburghs tunnel (594)

Ram One, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026
Ram One, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026

A really quick couple of posts uploaded last night on a train with intermittent WiFi, because today, I am going to be at the launch of a National Nature Reserve just outside Dorchester, and will be up too early to draft any posts.

Ram One, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026
Ram One, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026

This is a great piece of graffiti writing from a visiting artist, Ram One, who I think might have been painting alongside Neddy Ned Ned, from memory. The letters RAM are reversed in this piece and the red works so well with the black background and green plasma cloud. nice stuff.

Dorset bound

.

Boarded the slow train

is there a fast one I muse

villages pass by

.

by Scooj

7909. Stapleton Road

Tera, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
Tera, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

Haha, this piece by Tera is a stonker. Part of a Uzi Crew (Tera, Kid Crayon and SPZero76) paint jam with the theme of the cartoon comic 2000 AD. I was never in to the comic, which I regret, so I am not too sure who the blue lady and robot dog are, and my Google search hasn’t turned up anything.

Tera, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
Tera, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

This is a superb piece of dystopian future artwork, where Tera has free licence to do what he does best, and that is creating characters and worlds without boundaries. For an artist who ad only been ppainting walls for about 18 months, he is rather good at it. With each piece he is bringing more definition and sharper focus. I love the crazy detail in the piece – the boot, the orange hair, the different coloured eyes of the dog, the desetr background… it is all there to enjoy.

7908. Purdown (107)

Nice One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2026
Nice One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2026

If you look hard enough around the city of Bristol, you will find the words Nice One on buildings, on motorway underpasses and around unexpected corners. The artist gets himself pretty much everywhere. His letters are often accompanied by a character of landscape, but here in Purdown it is just Nice One’s letters.

Nice One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2026
Nice One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2026

This is a clever piece Which is painted on walls that protrude from the perimeter to different amounts and can only be accurate when viewed fromdirectly in front. If viewed from the side, you can see that the writing is at two depths. Nice One woulkd have had to compensate for this, making the further away letters larger. A skilled study in perspective and depth from Nice One.

7907. St Werburghs tunnel (593)

Michal (Miso), St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026
Michal (Miso), St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026

I was lucky enough to meet Michal a week or so after photographing this piece while he was painting in Peel Street Green. I stopped to have quite a long chat with him and he is a really interesting artist who works as a chef in Bristol. He was telling me all about the Slovakian (where he is from) street art scene, in particular about Dekor, who used to paint with Zase in Bristol, who is revered as a ‘god’ of street art back in Slovakia.

Michal (Miso), St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026
Michal (Miso), St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2026

His letters spell out Michal, he is known as Miso and has appeared here before in some collaboration pieces with Zase. He paints his letters freestyle, in other words from his head and not a pre-drafted design. This is a beautifully worked chrome piece with some accent spots adding just the right amount of detail. The blue splat background does just enough to make it stand out from the graffitied wall. Nice work, watch out for more soon.

7906. M32 Spot (223)

Conrico, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2026
Conrico, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2026

I unearthed this piece recently while digging about in my archives. It is a place-appropriate combination piece that is very much at home in the DIY skatepark underneath the M32.

Conrico, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2026
Conrico, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2026

Conrico has written his name with thinly filled green letters, through which a skater is powering. There is some great movement in the piece indicated by the skater’s posture and the little wisps around his feet and the skateboard. This is a rather unusual and wonderfully observed piece from Conrico.