Jade Wright heads out into Liverpool to find a public besotted with the successors to the much loved Superlambananas

NOTICED anything unusual on your way into work this week?

Last weekend, a super stampede of public art waddled their way throughout our streets, parks and open spaces in the most ambitious and all-inclusive public art event since the Superlambananas celebrated Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year.

Businesses, artists and communities have worked together on a penguin parade to brighten up Christmas shopping, and get the message across about the dangers of climate change.

A street corner here, a shopping centre there, and now Liverpool, St Helens and the Wirral are sprinkled with 200 clever and colourful penguins.

There are 135 five-foot fibreglass penguins, decorated by artists in collaboration with celebrities and community groups, and a further 100 three-foot penguins decorated by schoolchildren.

Merseyside is alive with a sculpture around every corner. Some are beautiful, others thought-provoking, but all have an infectious sense of fun.

On Church Street, the penguins have already captured shoppers’ hearts. Children crowd around them, while mums stand, camera phones poised, to add a picture to the collection. Beside them, someone has even brought their dog for a photo.

Like the Superlambananas before them, we’ve fallen in love with these super-accessible series of public artworks – with children cuddling them, tourists patting and photographing them, revellers trying to climb on them.

Kieran Jackson, aged three, loves the Penguin for All Seasons.

“We’ve looked at lots of the penguins today,” says Kieran, from Maghull. “I like the pretty colours on this one, and its big feet. This is the best one, but I like them all.”

Nearby, 2½-year-old Imogen Wheeler, from Wallasey, has fallen in love with The Mab Lane Plantation penguin, on Church Street. She likes his orange beak and his smooth tummy.

Up near Debenhams, Anne Everard, 58, admires SJ Penguin.

“They are absolutely fabulous,” she chuckles. “I’m from Country Kerry, in the South of Ireland, but I’m over here at the moment visiting my son. We’ve loved looking at these funny little chaps. I’ve walked up and down the street looking at them all. They’re certainly different. I wish we had them in Ireland.

“Christmas can be a stressful time, but it’s great to have a bit of fun with something like this.

“If I’d known how good they were, I’d have made a special visit just to see them. I think it’s a real boost to tourism to have something fun and friendly in the city centre.”