Street art celebrates champion racing cyclist as business expands

The image of the 1960s champion, along with husband Charlie and daughter, Denise, can be seen on the gable end of Woodrup’s Kirkstall Road shop in Leeds.

Charlie was her trainer and mentor and her daughter Denise grew up to be a champion racing cyclist in her own right.

Woodrups, which was established over 60 years ago, is into its third generation under the management of father and son team, Steve and Anthony Woodrup.

The pair are investing £250,000 on expanding the business, increasing its retail space by a third and introducing new revenue streams to create a cycling shop offering more than just sales and repairs.

A portion of the new space will offer static bike ‘smart’ trainers which enable users to ride up some of the Tour de France’s major climbs

The firm, which was hit by the Boxing Day Floods in 2015, recently bought the vacant premises next door and has submitted plans to extend its downstairs showroom and make further internal modifications to create additional sales space upstairs.

The stencilled street art mural was created by Bristol-based artist, Stewy.

“We were delighted when Stewy first approached us,” said Anthony Woodrup. “It’s an honour. Beryl was an all-time great. If she’d been born a few decades later everyone would know her name. In the early days of her career, my dad built a number of racing frames for her, so it’s great to have that link with the shop renewed.”