Albion’s star players have been honoured in a mural “celebrating our incredibly successful football club”.
The street art, named “pride of the South Coast”, was commissioned by Albion fanzine Dogma and was completed on Monday.
Brighton-based artist Sinna One started work on the giant piece in Farm Road, just off Western Road, Hove, last week.
It focuses on some of Brighton’s star players including long-serving captain Lewis Dunk, Hailsham-born Solly March, Spanish international Robert Sanchez, right back Tariq Lamptey and Albion's first Premier League goalscorer Pascal Gross.
James William, editor of the fanzine, said: “Brighton is world famous for having lots of amazing street art. People come to see our city and the culture on our walls. Unbelievably to us, there have not really been that many that have represented and captured our incredibly successful football club.
“We felt it was really important to focus on the players who made it possible to achieve that success.
“Some of the players have been fundamental to get us where we are. Particularly Lewis Dunk who is a local legend and has been the figurehead to our success for the last ten years or so. Solly March and Pascal Gross are key Premier League players.”
James said the group also wanted to focus on “under-appreciated” players who have helped Albion to the cusp of European football next season.
He added: “It might have been easy to put a Mitoma or Mac Allister there but we wanted to show those players who we feel are under-represented and under-appreciated.
“The people passing by and the comments we were getting were incredible. We had young and old coming down and saying how great it looked. Sinna One was gracious enough to let some passing school kids paint the background so it was a community involvement too.
“Some people passed and didn’t know so much about the football team. They asked ‘is that the Albion?’.
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“It was further proof of why we have commissioned this piece.
“We’re really proud to be the first fan group to deliver something like this in the city.
“It has been around a year and a half in the making. We worked with Brighton and Hove Tourism Alliance to identify sites that are problem sites for graffiti, then spoke to business owners and designed what was going to go on the wall and commissioned an artist.”
The mural is on the side of Mo’s Barber Shop in Western Road with the owner’s permission.
Sinna One, who has lived in Brighton for just under 20 years, said it took around three and a half days to complete, although there were challenges with the weather.
He said: “I painted around the rainfall. I got down there on some of the dry days last week.
“Each day was around eight to ten hours a day. Although sometimes I would get down and it was a slight drizzle so I had to stop.
“During the painting and after it was finished, we have got fantastic feedback. People have a lot of pride in the team.
“People were elated, especially the youngsters. Children came up and as I was painting the portraits they would shout out the names which is great because it meant I was doing a good job.”
For more information on Dogma and Sinna One, visit their websites.
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