6274 public art were commissioned by Riverside Inverclyde to bring a well known street mural back to the town of Greenock, Inverclyde.

The Mural was in place on the walls of the Westburn underpass for decades before it was taken down and replaced by a new public artwork in November 2010.

The painted tiles depicted a street scene of Greenock in the days before the construction of the town’s Oak Mall. Shops and businesses of the towns past including Westburn House, the Regal Cafe and Sheila Simpson Wool were all part of the artwork.

Before the initial building work started on the Westburn site, 6274 Public Art took photographs of each section of the underpass mural. There was a large amount of graffiti and damage to the tiles over the years which had to be digitally touched up. The next stage was to hand illustrate the street scene as close as possible to the original as we could.

Once completed a few modern Greenock landmarks were added, including references to the Tall ships festival, Clydeport Cranes and the soon to be constructed Beacon Theatre.

When approved, the full 23m2 mural artwork was digitally transferred onto porcelain tiles using our technique which has been a great success in the past. The tiles were fired at 800 degrees to seal the graphic transfers into the glaze before being laid out on the factory floor for inspection and numbering.

Once each tile was inspected they were numbered in a grid and key plans were passed over to our tilers M and M Ceramics of Dunoon for installation.

Billy McGuinness and his team expertly installed the 6 section of the mural over a period of 10 days and had to endure the lovely Scottish winter to complete the job.

To see more photos, check the 6274 public art website.