Roman-style mosaic unveiled at sea watching spot

A Roman-style mosaic has been unveiled at a sea life viewing station on the Scarborough coast.

The artwork, by Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and mosaicist Coralie Turpin, measures 27.5ft (8.4m) long and 20ft (6m) wide and is a permanent installation.

It spans the floor of a new sea watching station on Marine Drive, which is a renovated 1990s seaside shelter with free telescopes for viewing marine life.

Deller said: "I wanted to make a piece of public art that didn't get in the way of the view because there's a great view here."

"It's meant to be almost invisible until you stand on it and I like the idea of that," he said.

Deller came up with the idea for a Roman mosaic reflecting the wildlife in Scarborough and Turpin helped bring it to life.

It depicts a whale, a ship, dolphins and the various marine life on the Scarborough coast.

"Coralie is a mosaicist and she knew how to make an idea happen," Deller said.

"The idea is sometimes the easy bit, making something that is thousands of hours of work is the difficult part."

Alongside her team, Turpin hand cut up to 300,000 pieces of tile to put the mosaic together, which took six months to complete.

"It looks like it has been discovered during an archaeological dig," she said.

"It's fragmentary, so you would only have found little sections of it."

Turpin said the colour scheme was based on Roman mosaics, which had originally been made using marble.

The project was a collaboration between art and science organisation Invisible Dust and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Jeanine Griffin, curator at Invisible Dust, said: "The aim is to really engage people with the amazing wildlife on their doorstep and draw in people who are interested in nature and culture to Scarborough, as a year-round tourist offer.

"It's a really beautiful spot elevated above the sea, you can see right over the seawall to look at pods of dolphins."

Information panels on marine life have been installed inside the station.

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