Phantom framers of Teddington beautify street names and dog fouling signs

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Meet the phantom framers of Teddington.

They’ve been adding a bit of class to the streets of Teddington in the dead of night, when they take to the streets and furtively frame everything from road signs to dog fouling notices.

The ornate golden frames started appearing on an array of signage about a month ago. Despite Richmond Council’s attempts to remove the frames, the Phantom Framers kept striking – with 30 in total.

On Tuesday night they committed another act of artistic vandalism, which was captured by ITV News. This time the duo gave a posh little touch to a Station Road sign then running away like two mischeivous boys.

But before they ran off into the night the two young men behind the “Gilding Super Hero” spoke about their nocturnal artistic activities.

“We’re just here to brighten up people’s lives. Add a bit of colour to things and make people aware of their surroundings and Teddington’s a fantastic area to live in. But sometimes people walk down the streets with their heads down and they don’t realise how beautiful their local place is,” explained one of the Phantom Framers.

While the other added, “Another reason was to demonstrate the craft of framing and to prove that anything in a beautiful frame can be beautiful, even if it’s something very mundane that you may pass a hundred times without looking at it.”

The mischievous framers have won approval from locals and a petition was even set up since to stop the local authority from taking down their work.

Richmond Council has since changed their stance on the Phantom Framers and in fact seemed to have embraced them.

"We are more relaxed and are not prioritising their removal at this time," a spokesperson told ITV News.

We look forward to the next piece of urban signage the pair will pretty up next.

The Phantom Framers have been sharing their latest frames on Instagram and Twitter