Angel of the North

Angel of the North
Above: The Angel of the North in October 2014. Below: Close-up of the Angel viewed from below.
Location within Tyne and Wear
General information
Type	Artwork
Location	Low Eighton, Gateshead, NE9
Coordinates	54°54′51″N 1°35′22″W / 54.91412°N 1.58949°W / 54.91412; -1.58949Coordinates: 54°54′51″N 1°35′22″W / 54.91412°N 1.58949°W / 54.91412; -1.58949
Elevation	75 metres (246.1 ft)
Construction started	1994
Completed	1998
Cost	£800,000 (equivalent to about £1,440,000 in 2020)
Height	20 metres (65.6 ft)
Technical details
Material	Weathering steel
Design and construction
Architect	Antony Gormley
Structural engineer	Ove Arup & Partners
Main contractor	Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd

The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture by Antony Gormley, located beside the A1 road in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Completed in 1998, it is believed to be the largest sculpture of an angel in the world.^[1] The work faced considerable opposition during its design and construction phases, but is now widely recognised as an iconic example of public art and as a symbol of Gateshead and of the wider North East. In 2021, efforts by The Twentieth Century Society to obtain listed building status for the structure were unsuccessful.

History[]

Prior to the conception or construction of the Angel of the North, the most significant landmarks which heralded arrival into Tyneside when travelling north were the bridges the crossed the River Tyne.^[2] Gateshead Council first conceived of a sculpture to act as a landmark for the southern approach into Gateshead and Tyneside in 1990. The intention was for it to act as a "millennial image that would be a marker and guardian for our town".^[3]

The concept of the Angel of the North originally emerged from Gormley's series of structures called The Case for an Angel which he began creating in 1989.^[2] Gormley discussed the choice of an angel for the sculpture, suggesting that the image was multi-functional; as a reminder of the industrial history of the site, beneath which was a disused quarry where miners had worked for centuries; as a reference to the future, symbolising the transition from the industrial to the information age; and as a focus for human hopes and fears.^[2][4] The steel sculpture is 20 metres (66 ft) tall, with wings measuring 54 metres (177 ft) across.^[1] The wings are angled 3.5 degrees forward to create, according to Gormley, "a sense of embrace".^[4] The angel, like much of Gormley's other work, is based on a cast of his own body.^[5] It has been claimed that the Angel of the North is Britain's largest sculpture,^[6] but other sculptures – including Anish Kapoor's ArcelorMittal Orbit – also claim the title.^[7] The sculpture stands on a hill at Low Eighton in Lamesley parish, overlooking the A1 and A167 roads and the East Coast Main Line rail route, south of the site of Team Colliery.^[8]

Construction[]

Work began on the project in 1994.^[9] Gateshead Council secured funding of £800,000. £584,000 came from the Arts Council England, £150,000 from the European Regional Development Fund, £45,000 from Northern Arts, plus private sponsorship.^[10] The Angel was installed on 15 February 1998.^[11]

Due to its exposed location, the sculpture was built to withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Foundations containing 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons) of concrete form the base of the statue, anchoring it to the rock 70 feet (21 m) below. The sculpture was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd using COR-TEN weather-resistant steel, and was constructed in three parts; the body weighing 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) and two wings each weighing 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons). The components were transported in convoy, the body on a 48-wheel trailer, from their construction site in Hartlepool to the installation site 28 miles (45 km) away; the journey, undertaken at night, took five hours and attracted large crowds.^[11][12]

The plaque beside the angel contains a quotation by Gormley: "The hill top site is important and has the feeling of being a megalithic mound. When you think of the mining that was done underneath the site, there is a poetic resonance. Men worked beneath the surface in the dark.... It is important to me that the Angel is rooted in the ground—the complete antithesis of what an angel is, floating about in the ether. It has an air of mystery. You make things because they cannot be said."^[13]

Opposition and reception[]

Plans for the sculpture encountered significant opposition. Gormley himself has subsequently acknowledged being "snooty" towards the project; when originally approached by Gateshead Council, he scorned the opportunity, saying that he "did not make motorway art".^[12] Local newspapers ran campaigns against the proposed sculpture, in which local politicians joined.^[14][15] The Gateshead Post went as far as to draw comparisons between the Angel and a 1930s Nazi statue.^[12] Concerns were also expressed about the potential for traffic accidents resulting from the statue's proximity to the A1 dual carriageway, and for potential interference to television reception.^[12]

Since its construction, the sculpture has continued to generate comment, and has been the focus of a number of publicity stunts. The Guardian claimed that the sculpture is known locally as the "Gateshead Flasher".^[16] In 2011 Gateshead Council refused Tourism Ireland permission to illuminate the Angel for Saint Patrick's Day.^[17] In 2014, a supermarket chain was compelled to apologise after projecting the image of a baguette onto the Angel, an act Gormley himself called "shocking and stupid".^[17] In 2021, concerns that the sculpture's setting would be detrimentally affected by a road-widening project, led The Twentieth Century Society to seek listed building status for the structure. The Society's application was turned down by Historic England, the body with responsibility for the National Heritage List for England, which stated that threats to a structure's setting did not form part of its criteria for listing.^[18]

Twenty years after its completion, the Angel is now considered to be a landmark for the North East.^[11][19][20] The Angel has been listed as an "Icon of England",^[21] and has been described as "one of the most talked about and recognisable pieces of public art ever produced."^[22] Martin Roberts, in his 2021 revised edition of County Durham for the Buildings of England series, writes of The Angel; “Of all Gateshead Council’s great projects, [it] posed the greatest risk, yet delivered the greatest reward. Its erection captured the public imagination, its design won critical praise, and it gave both the town and the region a new symbol.”^[23]

Maquettes[]

Several maquettes were produced during the development stage of the project.^[24] A scale model from which the sculpture was created was sold at auction for £2.28 million in July 2008.^[25] An additional bronze maquette used in fundraising in the 1990s, owned by Gateshead Council, was valued at £1 million on the BBC show Antiques Roadshow on 16 November 2008—the most valuable item ever appraised on the programme.^[24][26] In 2011 German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop sold his life-size maquette at an auction at Christie's in London for £3.4 million to an anonymous bidder.^[27][28] Another maquette was donated to the National Gallery of Australia in 2009, and stands in its Sculpture Garden.^[29]

Other projects[]

Inspired by the Angel of the North, several similar projects have been proposed. The Angel of the South title has been given to the Willow Man, which sits to the side of the M5 in Somerset,^[30] while the White Horse at Ebbsfleet has been proposed for Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent.^[31] Gormley's earlier sculpture, Brick Man, proposed for the Holbeck area of Leeds, was never built.^[32]

Gallery[]

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  Oblique view

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See also[]

• Angel of the West
• List of tallest statues
• Star of Caledonia
• Wicker man
• Bill Macnaught

References[]

Citations[]

Bibliography[]

Where an abbreviation is used in the references this is indicated below in (brackets) at the end of the source name. When a source is available online, a link has been included.

• Nicholson, Paul J. (2018). "Antony Gormley, The Angel of the North, 1998" (PDF). Occupational Medicine. 68 (6): 352–353. doi:10.1093/occmed/kqy096. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
• "A study of the Significance which the Angel of the North gains from its Setting" (PDF). Prepared with Arup, Anna Pepperall, & Rebecca Farley. Prepared for Gateshead Council & Historic England. North of England Civic Trust. January 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link) (NECT).

Sources[]

• Roberts, Martin; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Williamson, Elizabeth (2021). County Durham. The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London, UK: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22504-4. OCLC 1225908677.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angel of the North.

• Gateshead Council's Angel of the North website
• Angel of the North – Antony Gormley's official website
• The Angel of the North at icons.org, featuring pictures of the sculpture under construction