Banbury café owner seeks ideas for second pigeon mural update

A cafe owner is calling on the local community to help him update its famous pigeon mural.

For more than three decades colourful artwork has featured on the side of the former Bridge Bar on Bridge Street in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

For many of those years, a huge image of a pigeon with its wings spread wide loomed over the street.

In 2024, owner of the now Power Cup café Tomas Kolbus decided the old work needed updating, so brought in artists to transform it, controversially painting over the bird.

He has now decided to involve the community in redesigning the work to better reflect the town and possibly to feature a new pigeon.

Kolbus said in 2024 the pigeon was in a bad way, so he approached the artists behind the original 30-year-old artwork to replace it.

He said the reaction was mixed, with not everyone happy at the change, but that people came around to the new design.

Two years on, and he said he was now working with artists from Banbury, Swindon and London on a new update, but wanted to make sure it reflected life in Banbury.

He said: "This year I decided, what shall we create? Another chapter on that wall.

"Not to delete everything, not to repaint it, just to add something more."

The mural is in a prominent location in Banbury, close to the bus and railway stations.

Kolbus said he was gathering information from people in the community, and wanted to create something that would remind people to slow down, relax and not to focus on stress.

As for the final design, he said it would remain a secret for now, but would probably feature a pigeon that was "funnier and more interesting".

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