Towering examples of heritage
heritage is starting to emerge on a giant mural being painted on the side of the city’s Blue Tower as work approaches the halfway mark.
The painting – which is starting to show images of foxes, tigers and spacemen – will be the third largest work of street art in the world and the biggest in Europe.
Leicester street artists Wing Lo, Richard Peacock and Leigh Drummond, assisted by Ben Edwards and Keine Tuckley, are behind the eyecatching mural on the side of the building near Leicester Station.
It will cover a total of 717.5 square metres of the surface of the tower, which is also known as St George’s Tower.
The project has been funded by BID Leicester and developed with local arts organisation Graffwerk.
When complete, it will stand an impressive 82 metres tall – almost doubling the UK record, and only behind artworks in Calgary in Canada and Karachi in Pakistan in stature.
Speaking earlier this month, BID Leicester director Simon Jenner said: “The artwork being created on St George’s Tower is a colourful and ambitious testament to the incredible creative talent of the city, and I’m extremely proud of the fact that it’s been created by local artists.
“The project is an example of the BID continuing to do bigger and betLEICESTER’S ter things for Leicester city centre, through proactively delivering initiatives which create a real and lasting change to the landscape.
“As well as transforming the building, we expect the artwork to give a boost to the visitor economy support tourism by giving people another great reason to visit the city.”
The giant blue building is home to several businesses, including a Premier Inn hotel, the Al Feena Shisha Lounge, student flats, PureGym and Hastings Direct.
The Blue Tower mural is expected to be completed in two weeks.
HUGE MURAL WITH FOXES AND SPACEMEN IS TAKING SHAPE