|
|
 |
| |
Tenants’ chairwoman Rebecca Hodgson with daughter Hannah Chauncy at the statue |
Estate pleads: ‘Save our statue’
Petition campaign to rescue The Neighbours who are showing their age after 50 years
FOR more than 50 years, The Neighbours have sat on a bench at Highbury Quadrant.
But now, the Grade II-listed statue of two men has a gaping hole, following years of neglect.
Its neighbours – the families who live on the estate – have petitioned the Town Hall to rescue the statue, unveiled in 1959.
London County Council commissioned Venetian artist, political
cartoonist and Second World War refugee Siegfried Charoux to create a sculpture that would embody “social cohesion” on an estate built in 1954.
Rebecca Hodgson, chairwoman of Highbury Quadrant Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, pleaded with councillors last week to prevent the statue falling into even further disrepair.
Homes for Islington (HfI), which manages the council’s housing stock, is now looking at what can be done to save the iron and concrete statue.
Ms Hodgson said: “The statue’s got a big hole in it. The title The Neighbours conveys what the statue represents. To allow it to continue to fall into disrepair feels like it not only betrays the history of the artist but the ideals that underlay the building of our model estate. Most importantly of all it lets down our residents.
“We’d like to reinvigorate it and explore more what it’s like to be a model estate in the 21st century.”
This summer, Highbury Quadrant children taking part in a hat-making competition designed headgear for the statue.
The winners were presented with prizes by 87-year-old resident Joyce Smith, whose children can be seen in a photograph of the statue’s unveiling.
Socialist sculptor and painter Mr Charoux, who died in 1967, fled to England as a political refugee to escape the Nazis.
His monument to 18th-century German philosopher Gotthold Ephraïm Lessing, for Vienna’s Judenplatz town square, was destroyed by the Nazis because Lessing was Jewish. Other works were confiscated and melted down.
Mr Charoux’s works include The Cellist (1958), at the Royal Festival Hall, The Motorcyclist (1962), at the Shell Building on the South Bank, and Judge, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand.
A HfI spokesman said: “We are talking to the council’s conservation officer and English Heritage to see what work needs carrying out. We are also looking at potential sources of funding to pay for the work.
“It looks like being an interesting project and we shall be working with residents to see what we can do to restore the statue and ensure it has pride of place at the heart of the estate.”
Highbury East Lib Dem councillor Laura Willoughby, said: “This statue is a much-loved landmark and residents want to see it protected. It has been there since the estate was built 50 years ago and it’s starting to show its age.
“The statue needs to be repaired urgently and Lib Dem councillors are committed to making sure that happens.” |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
