Heritage · temporary
Kevin Keegan stencil: Joy, Hope, Positivity
A stencil of Kevin Keegan running the first Great North Run in 1981, in his half-Newcastle, half-Sunderland shirt, with the words Joy, Hope, Positivity, on the Tyne Bridge restoration hoarding opposite the Great Run Company's office.
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| Address | Tyne Bridge restoration hoarding, opposite the Great Run Company, Bottle Bank |
|---|---|
| Street | Bottle Bank |
| Open to the public | Yes |
| Confidence | C · confirmed |
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Where it is
NZ 2544 6354 OS grid · 54.96590, -1.60410
The stencil shows Kevin Keegan in the running vest he wore for the first Great North Run on 28 June 1981: half the black and white stripes of Newcastle United, half the red and white of Sunderland. He was England captain and still a Southampton player then, a year before he signed for Newcastle, and his shirt carried both of the region’s rival clubs. According to the Great Run Company, he started in his England football trainers, stopped at mile 10 with blisters to swap shoes with a young spectator, and finished the last miles in the borrowed pair, coming 490th. He had bet 50p for charity on every runner who beat him.
It is well placed: the Great North Run is organised from the office across the road, and the route crosses the Tyne Bridge a few yards away. Keegan died in July 2026, aged 75, and the stencil went up not long afterwards. It has been suggested that it copies a Keegan mural in Byker; we have not confirmed that, and we don’t know who made it.
There is a second memorial nearby: Bertie’s Shirts in Arch 10 on Wellington Street has a Keegan shirt and an original cartoon mural by Art Vibes – Newcastle in its windows, which also went up in the weeks after his death.
Stencils on building-site hoarding do not last beyond the works. If it has gone, tell us.
- Great Run — Once Upon the Tyne (Keegan's 1981 run, shirt, trainers, finishing place, charity bet)
- CNN — Former England captain and manager Kevin Keegan dies at 75 (20 July 2026)
- Andy, on the ground, September 2026 (photograph and location)