Westminster consults on new ways to commemorate famous people (29/05/2007)

Memorials such as trees and gardens should be used to commemorate famous people in central London instead of statues and monuments, Westminster City Council announced today.

The City boasts a rich heritage of more than 300 statues and memorials which during the past 400 years have been erected in honour of a wide range of people from King Charles I and George Washington to Captain James Cook and Oscar Wilde.

But while they have occasionally been repositioned, new sites for free standing memorials are rapidly diminishing.

The council is consulting on plans to limit the number of applications for statues to encourage a better distribution of monuments across the capital.

It is proposing to establish a 'saturation zone' centred upon Whitehall where just under half (47 per cent) of all Westminster's memorials are located.

This would mean that applications for new statues and monuments will not normally be permitted here unless there is an 'exceptionally good reason' such as in the wake of a large scale disaster.

A 'stress' area including Victoria Street and Grosvenor Gardens where the number of statues is approaching the maximum acceptable has also been identified.

Anyone who wants to erect a statute in Westminster will usually need to wait until a period of ten years has elapsed from the death of the individual or the date of a particular event before the council will consider granting planning permission.

This, according to a council report on the future of statues in Westminster, will allow 'partisan passions to cool and enable sober reflection…. for the careful selection of a site, for the raising of funds and for the commissioning of the best possible piece of work."

As an alternative, the council is keen to encourage more 'living memorials' such as trees or gardens which provide a quiet and attractive location for reflection. Other options include memorial endowments, commemorative events or simple tablets such as the one in tribute to WPC Yvonne Fletcher who died in St James's Square in 1984.

Councillor Robert Davis, Westminster's Cabinet Member for Planning, said: "Westminster is extremely proud of its statues and their fascinating history and heritage. But unless there are exceptional circumstances, it is not always possible to accommodate all new statues and monuments in Westminster on the same scale as in the past.

"With each new memorial the number of suitable sites diminishes and some parts of the city such as Whitehall have already reached saturation point. To tackle this we are proposing to limit the number of statues in Westminster which we hope will encourage a greater and fairer distribution in other parts of the capital and the UK.

"We also feel that there are more appropriate ways to commemorate people and events in 21st century Britain such as the planting of trees or memorial gardens."

The report comes just weeks after the winning design for a bronze memorial to the Queen Mother in the Mall was revealed and follows the council's decision to grant planning permission for a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square.

There are more than 11,000 listed buildings and 54 conservation areas in Westminster. It is also the busiest planning authority in the country and deals with nearly 10,000 planning applications every year.

Ends

Notes to Editors

- The council has a selection of photos of Westminster's statues which are available on request

1) How many statues are there in Westminster?

There are 163 pieces of figurative sculpture in Westminster. This figure does not include busts, medallions, fountains, non-figurative memorials or war memorials, which form an approximately equal number. Many of these statues (93) are listed, and many of them were by the leading artists of their day and are major works of art in their own right reflecting a particular stage in the history of art and design. The oldest piece of public art in Westminster - excluding the 3,500 year old Cleopatra’s Needle - is the equestrian statue of Charles I in Trafalgar Square, dating from 1633.

2) How much are the upkeep costs and who pays?

The cost of each statue varies but as an example the recently erected statue to the Women of World War II costs £1,140 per year to maintain. Sculpture in Westminster is maintained by a wide range of institutions. Westminster City Council, English Heritage, the DCMS, Royal Parks and private owners all have a portfolio of pieces. Maintenance responsibility for a piece will have been determined according to the landholder, maintenance agreements in the past, and the provision of funds to maintain. For statues erected in recent years the commissioning body will usually have been required to provide a fund to cover the maintenance of that piece in perpetuity, to be lodged with whichever agency will be maintaining the statue. For older pieces there will be no such fund, and maintenance will be covered by ordinary budgets.

3) Is there a procedure for having statues taken down?

A statue will only be removed with the agreement of the owner of the piece and the owner of the land (they will not necessarily be the same). If the statue is listed then listed building consent will be required for its removal. If a statue is in a conservation area but not listed then conservation area consent may be required. Planning permission may also be required for the remedial works following removal of the plinth. Any one of these procedures will trigger the consultation of Westminster's Public Art Advisory Panel, who advise the Planning Committee on applications involving both new and historic public art. The panel is composed of invited experts from London's art schools, galleries, architects firms and arts organisations. Their advice will be given considerable weight by the planning committee.

4) Has it ever happened?

Yes, the statue of Walter Raleigh was removed from Whitehall to the (then) Greenwich Naval College. The proposal to move Raleigh was made on urban design grounds. The statue was small and slight, was overwhelmed by the monumental architecture of Whitehall and was out of scale with the other statuary along the road. As part of the planning process an important consideration in the relocation was the suitability of the new location. Greenwich was held to be very appropriate for Raleigh due to its maritime links. Without a suitable new location, both in terms of urban design and relationship with the subject, it is unlikely that an application for removal of the sculpture would have been successful.