Everything was “just right” for the official unveiling of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears mural at the Penrith Road bus shelter in Keswick.
The weather was “not too hot” and there was a good turn out of dignitaries and members of the public to witness four St Herbert’s Primary School pupils – Zoey Renton, Phoebe Renton, Alfie Parr and Harry Parr – unveil the eye-catching art work which now graces the back of the stone built structure at Wivell Park.
They also read an extract from the fairy tale.
Artist Paul Wilmott came up with the design over a pint with Keswick mayor Paul Titley and he believes that the town should be making more of its association with Robert Southey, who wrote the world famous fairytale while living at Greta Hall in 1837.
“The reason why Southey is not made more of is because he did not have the great poetic lines of Coleridge, Byrom and Wordsworth,” said Mr Wilmott, who was really pleased with the finished work.
“We can all quote their great lines but there are no great Southey lines but he was an amazing academic of great intellect, which is just as important.”
He added that many people in Keswick did not appreciate that the fairy tale was written in the town.
The idea for the mural was originally mooted by Keswick’s Cumbria county councillor Tony Lywood, a public art enthusiast who also set about securing the £2,000 needed to get the work installed in the shelter.
He was helped by the county council being keen to pay back the people of Keswick for the “massive disruption” caused by the £2.5m flood alleviation scheme including the Penrith Road pump.
Once funding had been secured there followed an open competition in the The Keswick Reminder where readers were asked to vote for the commissioned artist and Mr Wilmott won this with his interpretation of the story.
Keswick mayor Paul Titley said: “We did not need another landscape because we are surrounded 360 degrees by landscape and Keswick often gets overlooked in the story of Lakeland literature and this mural helps to put that right.”
Mr Lywood said: “Paul Wilmott’s mural is great. I love the bear’s legs. Public art in Keswick, as everywhere, is to be encouraged and applauded and I thank Cumbria County Council for their generous patronage in this case. I have to say I do like murals. If they are good that is!”
Keith Little, the county council’s portfolio holder for highways, said the bus shelter and mural “fits in” with Keswick and was “a vast improvement on what was here before.”
He added that benches were still to be installed either side of the shelter.
