DINERS at the newest restaurant in Pewsey, at the side of the Kennet and Avon Canal, do not even have to look out of the window to enjoy a traditional waterways scene.

Graham Lee, owner of The Waterside, which opened as a restaurant on Tuesday, commissioned canal artist Andy Jackson to paint a mural of a typical Kennet and Avon scene on an interior wall.

Mr Lee, who formerly operated a fleet of hire boats on the canal at Trowbridge, opened The Waterfront as a cafe in June in the former boathouse at Pewsey Wharf.

He said: "I originally intended to keep it as a cafe but so many customers kept on that I should open in the evenings as a restaurant that I had to take it on board and we opened on Tuesday."

Mr Lee said his customers were delighted with the mural, which shows a narrowboat emerging from a tunnel.

He said: "In the day people coming to the cafe can look out of the windows and see the canal just a few feet away and it's nice that on dark nights diners in the restaurant who cannot see the canal outside can see Andy's mural.

"It gives a nice laid-back canal ambience to the place."

The Waterfront opens daytimes Tuesday-Sunday as a cafe and evenings Wednesday-Saturday.

Mr Lee is waiting for Mr Jackson, who lives on a narrowboat, to return to add more colour to the restaurant walls with further canal-based murals.