Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough (born 1938) is a retired English artist. He is known for painting humorous scenes of Sheffield life, and everyday "real" images of the life and people of South Yorkshire.

Early life and education Joe Scarborough was born in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, in 1938. An only child, his father was a foreman in a steelworks who worked for English Steel Corporation, and his mother, a pianist, died from a brain tumour when he was eight years old. Joe started drawing and painting as a child, doodling trains and planes on the back of his father's pink report cards from work.

He went to Pye Bank school, and then Marlcliffe School, which existed between 1915 and 1964, until the age of 16. he became a face worker at the colliery at Thorpe Hesley, He sold his first painting for £5.

He eventually got his big break when Cyril Caplin, a local businessman, offered him £35 a week over the course of two years to paint. The cinema had many renovations over the years, and for decades it was believed that the painting had been demolished during a previous construction. In 2025, the mural was found still intact, hidden under layers of chipboard and plasterboard;

In an interview in August 2025, Scarborough said he was "semi-retired"

Recognition

In 2008 Scarborough was commemorated as one of the Sheffield Legends with a star on the "Walk of Fame" outside Sheffield Town Hall.

Style Scarborough's style of painting was described in a 2023 interview with Dawson Auctions as: "depicting day to day life in busy city scenes, working men’s clubs and packed theatres; he cleverly uses buildings, modes of transport and people, all drawn to one scale, to create a foreground and background for his paintings." She died in 2002 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.