Mural from 1960s created by refugee restored

The mural was created during the 1960s by Grete Marks

A mural created in the 1960s that has been hidden from public view for a decade has been fully restored.

The artwork was created by German artist Grete Marks, a Jewish refugee who fled to England during World War Two.

She was commissioned to design the mural for the entrance of Central House offices in Forster Square in Bradford.

It was discovered by employees of Incommunities, one of Bradford’s largest housing providers.

After being unveiled at its new home in Salts Mill, Saltaire, former custodian Paul Egan, of Incommunities, said it was "amazing" to see it on display again.

"Wow. Absolutely superb. The colours are much more vivid now than when it was sat in our warehouse," he said.

The mural is now on display in Salts Mill after it has been restored

Marks trained at German art school Bauhaus but later settled in England as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.

The eight-foot (1.8m) ceramic was commissioned by Bradford Corporation in the 1960s and depicts Forster Square as it appeared more than a century ago.

The artwork, originally based on a Victorian watercolour by Neil Stuart Crichton, captures the canal basin and Bradford Cathedral, reflecting the city’s rich industrial past.

It had been hung in the former Broadway complex before it was demolished in 2006.

Since then, it has been hidden behind a false wall in an office block of Incommunities and then in a warehouse for about a decade.

Parts of the ceramic mural were put back together after years of being in storage

There were "one or two cheeky additions" when compared with the original, historian Graham Kemp, said.

"If you look in the boat there are four cheeky characters there, and I'd like to think they were not in the original painting, so I'd like to think Greta added those as a bit of fun."

Fiona Hutchinson, a ceramic restorer from Worksop, has spent months cleaning the mosaic after it was placed into storage.

"I basically got presented with it in a thoroughly filthy state with wall attached to it, and a box of bits.

"Some of the titles were actually missing and the more you work on it, the more you feel like you're making friends with it."

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