A student fed up with the skewed image of people who grew up in Thornton Heath has created a mural to celebrate their many  achievements.

Marley Muirhead, 22-year-old was inspired to create the artwork at the CR7 Gallery on Ambassador House forecourt  to celebrate the amazing things that young people from here have done, as part of an assignment  for her BA at the University of East Anglia.

She said: “The people featured all grew up in Thornton Heath and are ages 19-29 year’s old apart from one who is a 37-year-old opera singer.

“They come from all walks of life but that’s the one commonality they share. This is part of the reason my mural is made anonymous.

The  participants responded to postings on Facebook and community pages.

She added: “I didn’t want it to have pictures or names because that would celebrate individual success and I want to celebrate the collective achievements of Thornton Heath as an area. 

“I also wanted local kids to go up to it and feel like it could be them – to know they’re not defined by where they come from and even if they were that certainly isn’t a bad thing. 

“A lot of my generation find that the stigma of Thornton Heath follows us both I’m education and in professional ventures.”