Town's diversity celebrated in new multicoloured mural

The project features "welcome" written in 44 languages at the shopping centre

A celebration of Slough’s diversity has been officially unveiled as part of a project led by a business group.

Viva Slough has made the Queensmere Shopping Centre more colourful, with 44 of the reported 150 different languages spoken in the borough represented by pictures of people who speak them.

The project was led by the Slough Business Improvement District (BID).

Clarissa Parker, from the BID, said it is “just the beginning of a series of projects aimed at transforming our high street into a vibrant, thriving hub”.

Multilingual Zsofia Vakos said she feels at home living in Slough

Zsofia Vakos is originally from Transylvania in Romania but is pictured next to the Hungarian for "welcome".

The Hungarian and Romanian speaker - who is also learning Spanish - said: “It feels amazing to take part in this. I came to Slough seven years ago and I made a lot of friends and created my own family.

“I do feel more at home here than back home, which is so weird. This is my home. I am so proud to say that, I am so proud to be part of Slough with all of its ups and downs."

Mike Swift said he is proud of being involved in the project

Mike Swift trained volunteer photographers who took pictures on mobile phones of the 44 people displayed on the mural.

“I’m pleased it’s going to be there for years now. I am very proud of it and I’m very proud of [the volunteers] for pulling it off," he said.

"We have all pulled it off really, everyone involved has pulled it off."

After moving to Slough from London, Vera Santos now calls the town home

Vera Santos, from Cape Verde, has lived in Slough for 12 years and said the project was "a great opportunity".

"We have reconnected with friends from 10 years ago that I had not seen [for some time], that I lost contact with. They were still in Slough so it was great," she said.

“I started in Heathrow/London area. Now with so many different people from different cultures, it feels good to be part of this. It boosted my confidence as well."

Swahili is represented as one of the 44 languages as Zhora Jefferies speaks it

Zhora Jefferies, who is originally from Kenya and has lived in Slough for 27 years, has her picture next to the Swahili translation.

She said: “It just makes me feel proud that you can be up on display and representing all of the different countries.

"It just shows what Slough is like with the diversity of people and it’s really interesting.”