Wall of fame' tribute as pub celebrates facelift

The Wellington Inn in Leek, Staffordshire, is rolling out red-carpet treatment for long-lost customers whose faces feature on its pool room mural.

Community pub operator Pyramid Pub Management is to host a post-refurbishment opening party with VIP treatment to anyone featured in the murals.

The party on Friday next week will also see VIP guests receiving a framed photograph of the wall murals as a memento.

With the pub undergoing extensive refurbishment, the brightly coloured and extravagant murals have fallen to the painters' brush.

Wellington Inn landlord Michael Deady said: "The murals are a feature of the pub and there are mixed feelings from the customers over their fate; some would like to keep them, while others just want to see the back of them.

"Many of the faces who decorate the walls are still regular customers, but some have drifted away and we are looking forward to welcoming them back.

"There will be sadness on the night, as some of the customers featured on the walls have since passed away, so we will raise a glass to their memory."

Business manager Gill Walker from Pyramid Pub Management added: "The pub is old and tired and it's time for a new start. The murals will not fit with the modern community local that we are developing here. That said, they are a snapshot of pub customers and community life. We feel it would be a shame to lose them forever; the new scheme will feature a montage of photographs of the murals printed on canvas."

The murals were painted five years ago by a local artist and became the talk of the town, with their brash originality and scale causing a stir, and featuring in the local press and on TV.