MURALS painted in the style of a famous Renaissance artist were uncovered during the demolition of a derelict Woking pub that is being replaced by a block of flats.

The paintings were on large canvases fixed to a wall inside the Rat and Parrot in the town centre.

One resembles depictions of the Greek and Roman god of wine, Bacchus, and Ariadne, a princess in Greek mythology, as painted by Titian in the 16thcentury.

The pub closed in 2009, after failing to compete successfully with Wetherspoons, opposite in Chertsey Road, and other popular drinking establishments in the town centre.

The building, previously a furniture store, was built as one of the original “pile it high, sell it cheap” Tesco supermarkets in the early 1970s.

It is being replaced by a 12-storey block of 50 one-bedroom, 16 two-bedroom and two three-bedroom flats.

The development is being carried out by Midgard Ltd, whose site manager Peter Jenkins said: “We don’t know how the murals came to be there, whether they were for the pub or one of the former businesses that operated there.

“Unfortunately, they were too damaged and wet for us to save.”

Do you remember the murals in the Rat and Parrot and who they depicted? Contact us by email on [email protected] if you have any information.