Remembrance mural painted on graffiti-covered Grimsby house

Nikita Spires A building blighted by years of vandalism has been transformed with a remembrance-themed mural. The artwork on Willows Estate in Grimsby was commissioned by councillor Steve Holland after he was told the graffiti scrawled on the bricks couldn’t be cleaned without damaging them. Due to a high veteran population on the estate, he decided a remembrance-themed mural would be most appropriate. Artist Nikita Spires said she hoped people felt pride when they saw her work, adding that she had loved giving back to her community. The idea for the mural came about when Mr Holland learned the only way to get rid of the vandalism would be to cover it up. “I thought, ‘we’re painting over it, why don’t we create something attractive?'” Dale Baxter/BBC Ms Spires, 25, involved residents by posting in Facebook groups and asking for pictures of loved ones from the war, which inspired the “heart of the piece”, a soldier and a little girl. “I had huge response, loads of photos coming in and I merged all the pictures together to create the soldier that you see,” she said. The artist also included a willow tree in reference to the name of the estate....