A mural which has been located at Monument Tyne and Wear Metro station is celebrating 30 years in its current location. ‘Famous Faces’ was painted by former coal miner and artist Bob Olley and was commissioned through the Metro’s Art on Transport programme.
It shows 14 local personalities of the time looking out from a Metro carriage. Featured are Paul Gascoigne, Jimmy Nail, Sting, Cardinal Basil Hume, Mike Neville, Robson Green, Brian Johnson, Brendan Foster, Rowan Atkinson, Sir John Hall, Peter Beardsley, Dame Catherine Cookson, Tim Healy and Jack Charlton.
Lynne Dickinson, Station Delivery Manager at Nexus, said: “Famous Faces is one of the most popular works on the Metro system, and has been for the last three decades. The artwork depicts some of most famous celebrities from the north east of England and was originally part of Bob Olley’s residency at the Customs House gallery in South Shields.
“We felt that it needed a wider and more permanent audience and so we acquired it for our Art on Transport Programme at Monument. It sits on one of the busiest staircases on the Metro system and is seen by thousands of people each and every day.”
Back in 2021 (to celebrate its 25th anniversary), Nexus commissioned a film on the artwork. In that film artist Bob Olley said: “I remember that I needed someone to open my exhibition at the Customs House and I asked the then director general of Nexus Mike Parker if he would help me out.
“I knew Mike quite well and thought if he’s opening the exhibition at the Customs House for me then I’d do a painting for Nexus in return. I decided this idea of a railway carriage called famous faces, which would be a Metro carriage with all these local celebrities on board. People like Sting, Jimmy Nail and the late Mike Neville.
“When the exhibition was over with I was pleased to learn that the mural was going on permanent display at Monument Metro station – and it’s still there to this day. I would love to know how many people have seen it. It’s got to be in the millions.
“My family use Monument Metro station quite a lot and they always say that there’s always somebody looking at the mural and trying to identify who all the people are in the carriage. The family like fact that people say ‘oh, it was you’re dad who painted that one’. It’s nice to have something there that as your legacy.”