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The Animals in War memorial on Park Lane |
Memorials banned in Whitehall
AN immediate ban on new memorials in Whitehall has been ordered.
It has been set up to stem a rise in applications for plaques and statues with the West End at “saturation point”.
An “exceptionally good reason” would be needed like an act of exceptional heroism following a “large scale disaster” before any memorial is approved.
The council says it will now take 10 years after the death of an individual before an application is considered.
A spokesman said a decade would allow for “partisan passions to cool and enable sober reflection”.
The order comes two weeks after plans for a bronze memorial to the Queen Mother in the Mall was revealed and a statue of living legend Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square was granted.
Trees and gardens will be used to commemorate the great and the good in Central London.
These “living memorials” would provide a quiet and attractive location for reflection.
Other options include simple tablets like the tribute to WPC Yvonne Fletcher who was shot in St James’s Square in 1984.
Councillor Robert Davis, Westminster’s cabinet member for planning, proclaimed the end of history in Westminster.
He 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.”
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.
The council ruled out removing statues from Westminster to make way for more recent role models. |
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