A BELOVED boat that once ferried The Beatles and the Queen and now lies “rotting” in Woolwich has been resurrected by an artist’s "love".

Painter Lorraine Fossi’s studios, in Harrington Way, overlook the now derelict Royal Iris – a former River Mersey ferryboat from 1952 to 1991.

In her heyday she saw many Merseybeat acts including The Beatles perform aboard, but after various bids to turn her into a floating nightclub she was towed to The Thames and moored in Woolwich in 2002.

Paris-born Ms Fossi was captured by the sight of the disused Iris which inspired a series of 20 abstract oil paintings on show in Mayfair until April 21.

The 49-year-old said: “We have both washed up at the same place. I see Iris almost every day: lonely, compelling and beautiful.

“I don’t know what her fate will be, she is rotting away, useless and old and I wanted to give her a new journey, as if transformed through my love and artistic vision."

News Shopper: Woolwich artist resurrects "rotting" Royal Iris riverboat with Mayfair exhibition

She added: “People in Liverpool say that she doesn’t belong in London; that she’s out of place. Sometimes I think that about myself.”

Numerous campaigners have sought in vain to return the iconic ship, which carried Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on their Silver Jubilee Mersey Review, to Merseyside and make her sea-worthy once more.

Using blocks of colour and sculptured layerings of oil paint, Ms Fossi says she hopes to salvage what seems destitute and reinvent the ship’s final journey.

To view her exhibition visit 54 The Gallery, 54 Shepherd Market, Mayfair which is open this week from 11am to 7pm.

For more information about the artist and her work click here.

To join the petition to return the boat to service visit royaliris.co.uk/buddy/