You can spot this Penrith house a smile away
Last updated at 14:01, Friday, 13 November 2009
Why has a window cleaner from Penrith given his house an elaborate new paint job?
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Video:
Penrith's 'Mr Blobby' house
Vince Holden, of Benson Row, added yellow dots to his pink house this week and has put a sign in his window asking for money.
A window cleaner from Penrith is hoping to ‘send a smiley’ to everybody in town after giving his house an elaborate new paint job.
Vince Holden has painted his house in Benson Row pink with yellow spots, and plans to give the larger spots smiley faces based on the text message ‘smileys’ on mobile phones.
The 47-year-old said: “I didn’t want it to look like Mr Blobby, I just wanted to put a smile on folk’s faces.
“There are 14,700 people living in Penrith. If they all have a smile on their face and give a pound to charity every time they see my house it would be fantastic.
“It’s very artistic, you can’t knock it for that. I got the idea from a house in Barrow with a chimney stack painted like a Liquorice Allsort.”
The new paint job is not specifically designed to raise money for charity, but Mr Holden, who regularly donates money to Cancer Research, has put up a poster in his window asking that anyone who enjoys his artwork gives some money to a charity of their choice.
So far the response from friends, neighbours and passers-by has been largely positive.
Mr Holden, who moved to Penrith seven years ago having grown up in Blackpool, said: “Everyone I know has given it a fairly good reception.”
Eden District Council leader Keith Phillips said: “The property in question is not a listed building so the resident is not breaking any planning guidelines. I hear that the motivation behind the painting is to cheer up the residents of Penrith in these gloomy times, so I hope it has the desired effect and may attract some more visitors to the town for a look during the run-up to Christmas.”
After a painter gave the house its first pink coat, Mr Holden painted on the yellow spots himself.
First published at 09:42, Friday, 13 November 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
It's his house, he can do pretty much anythin he wants to within reason. I believe this is within reason of good humour, fun and community interest. If people don't like it then they should go see a doctor and ask for happy pills as they are probably suffering from what is known as OLD GIT syndrome where everyone is doing something wrong (in their and a minority opinion) and you feel the urge to moan about it.
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you know what - someone tries to bring a smile to peoples faces with a lick of paint and people still want to complain!
Its only paint and like JJ said in these gloomy times a sense of humour is needed to lift our spirits, well done, I hope you raise lots of money.....wonder what the next theme will be!Posted by SF on 15 January 2010 at 09:46