Hidden 1950s murals by a Swan Hunter shipyard worker uncovered in a Marden home

A set of hand-painted murals hidden for decades under wallpaper has been rediscovered in a house on the Marden estate, revealing a small, personal chapter of the area's shipbuilding story. The paintings were the work of Robert King, a Swan Hunter shipyard worker in Wallsend who decorated his own home rather than paint on canvas, and they came to light again during a recent renovation.

According to local heritage account I Love North Shields, King and his wife Elsie moved into the newly built house in 1951 and he set about painting large-scale scenes across several rooms in oil paint. A 1955 report in the Shields Daily News recorded the murals at the time and noted that he had sought council permission for the work, which helps date and confirm the story.

What the murals show

The rooms carried a run of very different scenes, drawn from the kind of everyday imagery King had to hand at home. There was a stag with antlers on the stairwell, three galleons at sea in the lounge, a Dutch windmill and a farming scene in the entrance hall, and geometric patterns on the master bedroom ceiling. A pond scene in the bathroom had already been lost to an earlier renovation.

The new owners, first-time buyers, found the paintings while stripping back old anaglypta wallpaper, which had quietly protected the oil paint underneath for many years. King's daughter, Pam, said the stag was her favourite and remembered the colours being far more vivid when the murals were new.

Best for: The murals are in a private home and are not open to the public.

A shipbuilding connection

The rediscovery lands at a time when North Shields is looking hard at its own heritage, from the industrial history of the riverside to the recent Elevation NS800 mural and art trail marking the town's 800th year. King's story is a quieter, domestic counterpoint to those public artworks: a man who spent his working days in the Tyne shipyards and his spare time turning his own walls into seascapes and landscapes.

For anyone drawn to that maritime past, the Old Low Light Heritage Centre on the Fish Quay is the place to pick up the wider story of North Shields, its river and the people who worked it.

The new owner has said she hopes to keep at least one of the paintings, most likely the hallway mural, and cover the rest to protect them. Pam told I Love North Shields she was "thrilled that they have survived for so long."

Know more about Robert King or the Marden murals? Get in touch.