Advantages: A landmark to be proud of Disadvantages: Controversy over cost and unloved by many locals
...It was to present an angel figure with arms/wings outspread, constructed from steel but, unlike the statue of Christ the Redeemer, it would be featureless - more of an idealised representation in very simple form.
While the steel sections were being made by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications, the foundations were being laid: this involved inserting concrete piles twenty metres deep into the ground to anchor it. Hartlepool Steel Fabrications also renovated ... ...but it is the largest angel statue in the world. The statistics behind it are quite remarkable. There is enough steel in it to make 16 double decker buses and at 54 metres (175 feet) it's wingspan is larger than that of a Boeing 757! It weighs 200 tonnes and stands at 20 metres (65 feet) high. Some sections were so large they had to be transported to the site from Hartlepool with a police escort - I think this is quite fitting for something so special.
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fizzytom 03.02.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Angel of the North
Advantages: Great sculpture Disadvantages: it all seemed a bit strange when it was first erected
Angel of the North
Heralding as I do from Newcastle, and having always thought of this as my home town regardless of where I have lived, I watched the erection of this structure with interest. Its completion in 1998 heralded much interest and it has recently been voted fifth modern wonder of Britain.
Built on a panoramic site on a hilltop, the angel is, to me, a symbol of "coming home". At the top of the hill where the angel stands to the right ... ...having visited it.
The angel itself was commissioned by Gateshead Council as a landmark sculpture at the entrance to Tyneside, and indeed, its open spread wings seem to welcome people to the region. The site was selected because it was on a former pit head, and this seemed to symbolise the rich mining tradition of the region. Indeed the artist himself, Andrew Gormley, made the observation that the fact that men worked in the dark beneath the ground ...
danielalong 19.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Angel of the North
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