Statue of Liberty in Leicester

Did you know that if you can't get to New York city to take a look at the inspirational Statue of Liberty, you could always pop over to Leicester instead? Until recently, the Liberty Shoe Factory had a 17-foot replica statue that perched on top of its roof. According to Leicester council, the statue was built after the directors of the factory made a trip to New York in the 1920s and were so impressed by Lady Liberty, they commissioned an itsy-bitsy, lookie-likie when they came home. The statue was removed at the turn of this century after the factory closed but after some restoration work, you can now see the lady and her flame proudly standing guard over the Swann Gyratory roundabout.
This replica of the statue of Liberty stands on a traffic island by the river Soar in Leicester.

Liberty in Leicester

According to the tale as told to me it stood on top of a shoe factory just across the river for decades. In the early 2000's the warehouse was slated for demolition, and a great hue and cry went up about preserving the historic sculpture. A few elderly residents even came forward presenting their memories of it being painstakingly carved and then hauled to the top of the building.
So arrangements were made to preserve the statue. A plinth was set up and the precious sculpture was carefully lowered from the roof. At which point a number of facts became apparent...
1) The statue had not been painstakingly carved - instead it had been cast in rather cheap concrete.
2) As it had been designed to be seen from several stories below the bottom of the statue was much wider than the top, which at close range made it look patently ridiculous.
3) Again given that the statue was designed to be seen from quite a distance away it was rather deficient in detail and frankly looked rather lumpen and ugly.
Apparently a great deal of money was spent chipping away at it to make it presentable at ground level :)