Scots Wha Hae at A Room in the West End.
I’ve just finished up a new Scottish nostalgia mural at the subterranean restaurant A Room in the West End – below Teuchters pub on William Street in Edinburgh. Owners Peter and John wanted to create a cafe crowd scene that reflected their central Edinburgh location, with a dramatic horizon that would made the room look bigger. After painting over an older mural that no longer reflected the restaurant’s new atmosphere, I got to work creating Edinburgh’s Old Town landscape from one end to the other, capturing the spirit of old city.
After setting the background scene I started to fill in the crowd, first painting some restaurant and bar regulars and then I had great fun painting the Big Yin – Billy Connolly. I decided to pop the 80s children’s tv star Super Gran in the background behind Billy as he appeared in the show and sang the theme tune. As with all of my projects I collected time lapse footage throughout the painting process, and after the completion I made a short film which I released to social media. Billy Connolly kindly give me permission to use the theme tune to Super Gran on the clip, which gave it a really strong Scottish tone without reverting to bagpipes. Then the flood gates opened and I began adding notable Scots of sports, film, TV, music and literature, alongside a very timely release of the new Trainspotting 2 film, whose original cast feature at a prominent table!
Beady-eyed celeb spotters can look for the following famous Scots on the walls of A Room In The West End: Tilda Swinton, Shirley Manson, Sharleen Spiteri, Lulu, Annie Lennox, Susan Boyle, Lorraine Kelly, Rod Stewart, The Proclaimers, The cast of Still Game, Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Danny Boyle, Kelly MacDonald, Shirley Henderson, J.K. Rowling, Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kevin McKidd, Sean Connery, Princess Anne, Billy Connolly, Alex Ferguson, Bill McLaren, Gavin Hastings, John Jeffry, David Sole, Jim Telfer, Ian McGeechan, Andy Irvine, The Krankies, Rikki Fulton, Karen Gillan, Super Gran and Shrek.
The mural seems to have struck a chord with people as we’ve attracted great widespread national coverage with the mural, appearing in the Edinburgh Evening News, The Times, The Glasgow Herald, The National and The Sun.
Even better, the mural has received positive feedback from all the staff at the restaurant who have noticed a huge change in the atmosphere, and there is no lack of conversation at the adjoining as diners now celeb spot during their meals.