The Dickens pub on Teesside University’s campus has been offered the opportunity to collaborate with Guinness to produce two giant murals.
A planning application has been lodged this month with Middlesbrough Council.
Jack Spensley, 28, a manager at The Dickens said: “We’re doing a bit of work to the pub, so Guinness are going to come on board big time. We’re trying to push Guinness. It’s really popular at the moment.”
The murals, which will take up the whole height of the pub, will feature iconic Middlesbrough monuments – including Roseberry Topping, the Riverside Stadium, and the Transporter Bridge.
“All of those things hold a special place in people’s hearts, especially in this area,” Spensley said.
If planning permission is granted, the images will sit alongside the classic Guinness Toucan.
Other locations for Guinness murals include pubs and restaurants in Durham, Barrow, Sunderland and Newcastle.
“At the moment, the pub looks a bit like a blank canvas,” said Spensley. “It’s just a white wall. So, when they offered, we thought people might come down and want to look at it.
“We’ve just employed architects to submit the applications on our behalf because it all has to go through the correct processes. If not, I suppose it could be classed as graffiti.”
Spensley said Guinness came forward with the idea and offered for one of their artists to meet him. The artist had said it would take about 10 days to complete but Spensley was surprised how quickly he made his first drafts.
“Even when we were sitting upstairs having a meeting with him, he just quickly sketched them together on his notepad. They make it look easy, don’t they? In 10 minutes, he turned the notepad around, and he was like ‘oh, what do you think of this?’ and we were like, ‘wow, you’ve just done that in 10 minutes’.”
The planning application is still pending a decision from the council, but the pub is hopeful.
