The iconic statue of James Watt and his associates Matthew Boulton and William Murdoch is set to stay in storage until the autumn of 2020.

The golden sculpture used to be on display in Broad Street, in the centre of Watt’s adopted city of Birmingham. However, it was removed in 2017 to allow for extension works to the city’s Metro tram system.

There had been hopes of re-siting the imposing sculpture in nearby Centenary Square (home to the famous Library of Birmingham). However, art and history fans will have to wait a little longer to see the sculpture.

Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward says the statue’s new home is close to the city’s Symphony Hall, where redevelopment works have recently got underway. Cllr Ward said: “To avoid risk of damage to BWM (Boulton, Watt and Murdoch statue) it will be returned by the Metro team to public view in the square on completion of Symphony Hall’s facade in September 2020.”

The full story is on the Birmingham Live website.

Gilded statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch – pictured in central Birmingham in 2006 by Oosoom and shared on English Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Gilded statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch – pictured in central Birmingham in 2006 by Oosoom and shared on English Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 

Published by Editor