Thomas Osborne Robinson was a renowned theatrical designer at Northampton’s Royal Theatre. His association with the Northampton School of Art began as a student in the 1920s and culminated in the donation to the School of his life-time collection of posters, the Osborne Robinson Poster Collection, in the 1970s.

Osborne Robinson began work on the Grosvenor Centre Mural, a series of eleven wooden panels depicting scenes from the history of Northampton, in 1973. The eleventh panel was unfinished at the time of Mr Robinson’s death in 1976 and was completed by Alan Miller-Bunford. The mural was displayed in Northampton’s Grosvenor Shopping Centre from 1976–1999 and presented to the University of Northampton on indefinite loan following the Centre’s refurbishment.