Smiley face on Norwich house still bringing joy after 50 years

Once bright yellow, the smile has faded, but its effect has not

A giant painted smiley face preserved for almost 50 years on the wall of a "happy house" is still bringing joy to residents on a housing estate.

Valerie Wright, a mother of five, painted the yellow face on her Norwich home in the early 1970s.

Subsequent residents kept the painting, although it has faded and lost part of its head when a roof was lowered.

A recent photo on social media elicited hundreds of people's memories which Mrs Wright, now 83, said was "amazing".

"It was an incredibly happy house," said Jeannette Wright-Russell, who grew up in the north Earlham home with her mother and four brothers.

"When mum moved here, she didn't know anyone, so she painted the face because she just wanted to make people smile."

This is how the painting looked back in the 1970s

The simple gesture has remained a part of the home to this day.

Faded from its original bright yellow, the smiley face still greets people as they turn the corner into the street where Mrs Wright lived for more than 20 years.

The five Wright siblings grew up in the "happy house" with their mother

Recently, a former Earlham resident revisited his old stomping ground and photographed the face painting.

Kim Gilchrist was a toddler when his mother used to walk him past the giant smile in the late 1970s.

A family friend was photographed in front of the face in the early 1980s

Having moved away years ago he was incredulous the artwork was still there.

"[Have people been] topping it up for 40 years?" he asked, posting a picture on a Norwich Facebook group.

The comments came flooding in as hundreds reminisced about the face that Mrs Wright had created.

Valerie Wright, now 83, painted the face on her wall shortly after moving to the Norwich estate

"[I] remember it always made you smile", wrote one, while another pleaded "don't change it, [it's a] piece of history".

"We go through life and every so often memories are stirred by such pages as these, some long forgotten... I simply love it," was another comment.

Mrs Wright was delighted when her family told her about the reaction.

"It's quite dumbfounded me, to be honest," she said.

"We were complete outsiders when we moved in and I wanted to cheer myself up - as well as others.

"I do like smiley faces - they do make us smile - the whole family has Henry hoovers because of the smiley face on those."

The Wright family house was always full of friends, the family said

The current residents of the "happy house", said it was "lovely reading all the comments and seeing just how many people love the smile".

"The face lives on," they added.

The truth is, the smiley face has only been repainted once during the intervening decades but there are plans to spruce it up this summer "to keep the face alive".

Mrs Wright's smiley face may have faded, but it has not been erased.

"If I've done some good, and this is still making people happy - then that's an amazing thing," she said.