The man who paints penguins on the wall

In fact, it's not a house at all, it's a shop. Hey Baby in Reindeer Court, Worcester. Although really the location is immaterial.

Because when Inglis Thomson sets out to paint a scene to amuse the children, anywhere is his canvas. It could be the bedroom, the playroom, the bathroom or even halfway up the stairs.

Those with a reasonable memory may recall the name, if only for the fact there aren't that many people living around here called Inglis.

It's Scottish and this particular Inglis hails originally from Ayrshire. He arrived in Worcestershire, via Liverpool, in 1970 to become principal planning officer for Worcester City Council under the redoubtable city architect J Roy McKee.

On local government re-organisation in the mid-70s, Inglis was appointed assistant county planning officer for the new Hereford and Worcester county council. Which was where he remained until 1989, when he moved to Bournemouth as borough planning officer, before retiring in 1993.

So that was the day job. Nothing whatsoever to do with painting elephants on walls.

But Inglis had another string to his bow - amateur dramatics.

His wife Helen had been a soprano with Scottish Opera and when the couple moved down to Worcestershire they soon hitched up with Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Society "The first show I did was Brigadoon," said Inglis. "You could say I walked into the part. I just had to open my mouth and I was there."

It was one small step for Inglis Thomson, but fortunately a very large one for WODS, when he turned his hand to set design.

With an architect's eye for detail and the accompanying drawing skills, Inglis created a string of impressive settings for the am-dram group.

"One that particularly comes to mind was the two storey set we made for Anne of Green Gables," he said. "We built it at first at the Friends' Meeting House in Sansome Walk to make sure it worked. Then we had to take it all down, transport it across town and build it again on the stage of the Swan Theatre."

Inglis was also responsible for the spaceship setting for Return to the Forbidden Planet, performed by the society's youth section. The hillbilly musical Li'l Abner was another that allowed his imagination full rein.

His most recent set for WODS was HMS Pinafore, complete with quarter deck and mast. "The Australian version," he added swiftly. "It's more jazzed up and swashbuckling than the original."

Inglis also works a lot with the hugely popular Midland Musical Theatre Group. "Sometimes their productions require four or five different sets, obviously with the ability to change them quickly and that's quite a challenge."

He likes to retain full control over his sets, thus making sure the quality of materials and workmanship meets his exacting professional standards.

It's the same approach he is using in an innovative off-shoot of his artistic skills.

It started, as these things often do, by doing a job for a friend.

Inglis was asked to paint some characters on the wall of a youngster's bedroom to make it a bit more child-friendly. Then someone else asked him. And someone else. And so on.

"It's all been by word of mouth," he said. "It's rather surprised me."

It's also led to him setting up a little enterprise called - wouldn't you just guess from a Scotsman - Haggishouse. With the strapline "Fun designs for children's nurseries, bedrooms and playrooms".

Appropriate really for a man who was responsible for planning schemes in his previous life.

"Basically, I paint anything on a wall that people want," said Inglis. "Animals are a favourite and jungle scenes are particularly popular. Then you have space rockets, sports scenes, anything. Even family groups."

He first draws an outline sketch of the subject on the wall and then completes the proper job in standard emulsion paint.

When he's finished, youngsters can climb the wooden hills to the Land of Nod accompanied by their favourite cuddly elephant, baby deer, zebra or leopard cub.