NINE benches will be appearing in CrownGate Shopping Centre in Worcester this May designed by youngsters from around the city following a competition to design artwork for the seats.

Students aged seven and up took to the drawing board to create what they thought should go on the new book-shaped seating for the shopping centre.

Now the winning designs have been chosen from the 272 entries the bookbenches will be heading to the schools of the winners to be decorated with their favourite story artwork.

The winners were Ella Geoghegan-Smith, from Whittington CE Primary School, Molly Dee, from Rushwick Primary School, James Patten and William Blakemore and Lottie Beck-Johnson and Libby Rimmel, all from King’s St Albans and Lauren Annis, from Holy Redeemer Primary School in the seven to 11 age group.

In the 12 to 16 group the winners were Barney Williams, Hannah Small and Kaya Murphy, all from the Christopher Whitehead Language College.

And Grant Hickman, from the University of Worcester, won the 17 plus age range.

The idea for the BookBench competition and exhibition came from the National Literacy Trust’s ‘Books About Town’ art trail that took place across London throughout the summer last year. We are working with the same company, Wild in Art, who worked in partnership on the London project.

Sara Matthews, CrownGate Shopping Centre marketing manager said: "We have been completely overwhelmed by the amount of interest in this competition and the number of entries received has been phenomenal.

"The time, effort and enthusiasm applied by the students is evident in their designs and it make the job of judging an almost impossible task."