New ‘Northern’ mural takes shape on former BHS Preston storefront

A new mural has transformed the boarded-up frontage of a former city centre department store.

City artist Shawn Sharpe has picked up the spray cans again – after a few months break from major projects – to give the bordered up site a fresh look.

He had taken a break in February after finishing A Pocket Full of Sky near the Markets but took to social media to say ‘it was great to pick up the cans again’ for the ‘Northern’ mural.

Read more: Interactive mural map for Preston launches

Nearly reaching completion, Shawn added that there was ‘a lot of support’ in the city centre while he had been painting.

He shot to Preston fame in 2023 with the ‘Mother’ mural on the side of Hogarths pub in Church Street which began a short-running planning row with the city council after planning permission was not secured.

Since then he’s become a mainstay of the city’s creative scene and has been taking on outdoor and indoor murals across the city, with a number being funded by the city council, including the Pioneers mural on boards at the base of Lancastria House, a temporary mural inside the Market Hall to celebrate 150 years of Preston Markets last year and the Pocket Full of Sky mural on the side of the Limehouse building which was crowdfunded but included a contribution from the council.

BHS or British Home Stores, which closed in July 2016, and has since attracted controversy over the apparent use as a snail farm, three years after its closure and is owned by the Bhailok group of companies.

The building in Fishergate was also one of ten vacant properties featured in the In-Between Places project, created in partnership with Preston Partnership and Studio John Bridge Architects to highlight empty spaces across the city.