43-year-old Mark Murphy, who lives in Walton-le-Dale with his wife, 20-year-old daughter, 18-year-old twins and a 12-year-old daughter called Jessica, has built a micro scale build of Preston City Centre, inspired by Lego Architecture skylines.
Explaining how it all started, Mark, who runs a business consultancy, said: “The kids have always loved lego, it's been a great present for birthdays and Christmas, so over the years, we've accumulated a lot. I got into it myself through a range called LEGO Architecture, and my youngest daughter expressed an interest in architecture, so we built our sets together. So it's famous locations like Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, New York, London, San Francisco.
“From there, I discovered a Facebook group called Micro Scale Go, which is where people who enjoy building with Lego make really small replicas of things, and I just thought if I could combine those things together it would be great. Lego are never going to build a Preston because there wouldn't be enough demand for it, but I thought there was enough landmarks in Preston for me to do it… I was thinking of individual models to begin with, but then I thought I'd try and replicate a city skyline with the Lego that we've already got.”
In the end, Mark’s skyline features ten iconic sights from across the city – Preston Bus Station, Preston Railway Station, Harris Museum & Gallery, St. Walburge’s Church, Deepdale Stadium including the Tom Finney Splash Statue, Flag Market, Cenotaph, Preston's famous phone boxes and Winckley Square.
After sharing it on social media, Mark says he is pleased by the positive reactions it has received, with Prestonians recognising their most beloved landmarks, although he admits his children “took the mick out of me a little bit!”
Mark added: “I think it's dead easy to get into, I don't know many families who don’t have a box of Legos somewhere they’ve accumulated over the years. It's amazing, just from those pieces, what you can create.”
Take a look at his creations below, and find out how long it took, why he chose certain landmarks, and which landmarks were the hardest to build!
1. Preston skyline
Whilst he had some time off work, Mark spent less than a week on the build, adding "it became a bit addictive in the end." Photo: Mark Murphy
2. The architect
Mark with his youngest daughter Jessica, who he initially started doing Lego Architecture with. Photo: Mark Murphy
3. Preston Bus Station
Mark says the bus station is iconic, being the second largest in Europe and under protected status, but "it was really difficult because of the the iconic shape, I didn't have enough pieces for that, I had to go with a much smaller version with two tiers rather than four" Photo: Mark Muphy
4. Red phone boxes, Cenotaph, Harris Museum
But the most difficult build was the Harris Museum: "I left that to last, and by then I was like what Lego have I got left to create the columns? And it's got such intricate designs at the top of it so I was just trying to do something that did it justice." Photo: Mark Murphy