As one of history’s greatest engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is worthy of a statue to commemorate his genius.
But a plan to spend £500,000 to forge steel rails into a sculpture 15m (49ft) high showing the top-hatted Victorian juggling his creations has led to opposition, including one of his descendants.
The monument, planned for wasteland in southeast London, was condemned as a “low-brow horror” by Stephen Bayley, a design critic. Isambard Thomas, Brunel’s great-great-great grandson, criticised the work as a childish stickman lacking the gravitas suitable for the titan responsible for engineering feats including the Great Western Railway, the pioneering steamship SS Great Britain and the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The controversy follows Southwark Council’s decision to support the Brunel Statue Group’s plan for the structure, designed by Kevin Boys, a local blacksmith and artist. If approved, the memorial will stand close to the entrance to a rail tunnel beneath the Thames where Brunel learnt much of his trade as an assistant to his father, Marc Isambard Brunel. It was while working on this project that the younger Brunel nearly lost his life when there was an accidental flooding of the tunnel.
Southwark Council’s report describes the statue as “constructed of double bull nose steel rails, bent into shape and bolted together to form a lattice-shaped effigy of Brunel in his trademark top hat. “Brunel will have the appearance of juggling a symbolic representation of a ship, a tunnel, a bridge and a locomotive, recognising and reflecting his engineering achievements.”
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Writing in The Times today, Mr Bayley described the work as a horror, adding: “What’s proposed is a pitiably low-brow, conceptually one-dimensional effort of feeble-minded literality in openwork metal.” Mr Thomas, 45, a typographer, said that the sculpture did not honour the memory of his great-great-great-grandfather, who died in 1859. “It is too childish and much too big,” he said yesterday. “It’s hard to be critical of the artist, I don’t know the brief that he was given. But the statue has nothing to do with Brunel’s excellence. It lacks gravitas and resembles a stickman throwing a hula hoop.”
He felt that the £500,000, which will also pay for the area to be landscaped and an amphitheatre where children will be able to learn about the engineer, would be better spent on local schools. The council has received objections from local residents and other parties; the main concern was that the proposed statue was simply too tall.
The planning committee will make a final decision next month.