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Square statues seen as ‘clutter’
A ROW has blown up over multi-million- pound plans to transform Parliament Square into a major tourist attraction.
Eight listed statues could be moved as the designers said this week they want to create a space free of “clutter”.
English Heritage insists the statues – including Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, Nelson Mandela (pictured) and General Jan Smuts – should not be moved.
The front of Westminster Abbey is to be pedestrianised and the lawn will be replaced with swaths of British stone paving and benches.
The new square is expected to become a major tourist attraction.
London mayor Ken Livingstone has commissioned Vogt Landscape Architects, the firm of modernist Swiss designers behind the landscape for Tate Modern, to rebuild the square.
The designers envisage Parliament Square as a “constitutional” counterpoint to the “civic” Trafalgar Square, which was partly pedestrianised in 2003. It will host state ceremonies as well as more public events such as the opening stage of the Tour de France which took place last summer.
English Heritage is opposing the plans but a public consultation is due in May and the team hopes to lodge a planning application by October. |
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