A dark and gloomy underpass is to get a new lease of life.
And the bright future for the subway beneath the busy Manchester Road at Slaithwaite is all down to students from the University of Huddersfield.
They devised a design competition to come up with a new look for the subway and are now to do the work themselves.
They billed the project SURP - Slaithwaite Underpass Regeneration Project - and attracted a number of entries from would-be designers.
Judges including Clr Nicola Turner chose Jessica Wainwright’s submission as the winning design.
She is a 3rd year Contemporary Art & Illustration student and said: “Having the opportunity to be a part of this project feels very rewarding, as the underpass will become something that the Slaithwaite community can enjoy, as well as giving myself the experience that will benefit me as an art student.”
Her design features two contrasting parts; a day and night theme on either side of the underpass. The ‘day’ side features bright blue skies, a railway, mills, hills and a canal; whilst the ‘night’ side depicts an image of the moon in the dark sky reflecting on to the canal water, highlighting the traditional moonraking festival with raking patterns and by using the lights on the wall as lanterns floating in the water.
Work will start on Mnday, April 18, on transferring the deigns to the walls of the subway. Volunteers will paint and decorate the underpass using the planned designs during that week.
George Gill, an executive officer with the University student union, said: “The scale of the mural and the timeframe we have means that volunteers would be so important to the success of the project.
“As Jessica has mentioned, it is integral to the success of the project that we recruit enough volunteers to make sure that the work is finished in the planned time.
“It truly is a completely unique project.”
