Greenock Street Scene

Public Art: Greenock Street Scene

Artists: 6274 Public Art

Artists Website: 6274publicart.co.uk

Tilers: M and M Ceramics of Dunoon

Description: The Greenock Street Scene mural is a series of painted tiles (digitally transferred onto the porcelain) depicting a streetscape from the beautiful town of Greenock. The scenes include shops and businesses of the town’s past, such as Westburn House, the Regal Cafe and Sheila Simpson Wool and scenes of the present, including the Tall Ships festival, Clydeport Cranes and the soon to be constructed Beacon Theatre. 

Commissioned by: Riverside Inverclyde

Date Unveiled: November 2011.

Location: The Greenock Street Scene can be found in the Westburn underpass area which links the bus station to the Oak Mall, Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland.

Acknowledgments: A big thank you to Andy Nicol and the team at 6274 Public Art for kindly providing photographs and information.

Their Story:

Graphic Tiled Street Scene comes back to life in Greenock.  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 2011.

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 town’s past including Westburn House, the Regal Cafe, and Sheila Simpson Wool were all part of the artwork.

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 sections of the mural over a period of  10 days and had to endure the lovely Scottish winter to complete the job.

The kind comments we have received from passers-by and locals who remembered the locations depicted within the mural have been greatly appreciated.