PUPILS and artists have clubbed together in a bid to spruce up a ‘glum and gloomy’ Oxford underpass.

The project saw youngsters from St Nicholas Primary School team up with two local artists, Miranda Carnegie and Francesca Shakespeare, to give the passageway that connects the two sides of Old Marston a very colourful makeover.

Explaining the motivation to spruce up the underpass, Jane Wilson, co–fundraiser for the new murals, said: “The murals were peeling and decaying and it was beginning to look glum, gloomy and depressing.

“This underpass we all walk though, and children walk to school through it.

“It’s quite a complex story, but the two artists came up with this scheme ‘on your patch’ the background is the stretch of the Cherwell, with hundreds of little tiny houses winding through to the old buildings of Oxford.”

She added that the artists painted the detail, and left empty white patches for the youngsters to design and paint, saying “Children have painted the patches, and if you stare from the top of the underpass, you can see all the handkerchiefs flying through the skies.”

She added that even though the work is officially complete, the team are hoping to raise enough cash to paint all the empty space on the underpass.

Paint brand Dulux was among the sponsors of the project and donated buckets of paint which were used to revamp the underpass.

The Midcounties Co–operative, The Doris Field Trust and Oxford Civic Society also sponsored the project.