{"id":500173,"date":"2026-06-15T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500173\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:54:11","slug":"15-british-statues-you-must-see-in-your-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500173\/","title":{"rendered":"15 British statues you must see in your lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"

The M Shed Museum<\/a> in Bristol<\/a> has unveiled a new permanent display of the controversial statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, which was graffitied, toppled (during an anti-racism protest in June 2020) and thrown into the city\u2019s harbour before being dredged out.<\/p>\n

A survey of 14,000 Bristolians found that 80 per cent supported the statue\u2019s new home, as it helps to contextualise its history and place other statues in the UK with links to the slave trade under review.<\/p>\n

More than anything else, however, this stands as a reminder of the incredible power of the humble statue \u2013 capable of stirring up emotion, awe and, in some cases, complex controversy<\/a>. Seeing who \u2013 or what \u2013 a nation has chosen to immortalise in this way can be an illuminating window into its culture, history and psyche. So, what do Britain\u2019s most pivotal statues say about us?<\/p>\n

From political flashpoints to beloved local icons, here are 15 of the UK\u2019s most interesting, storied and divisive statues and sculptures, and why they\u2019re worth a visit.<\/p>\n

Duke of WellingtonRoyal Exchange Square, Glasgow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The M Shed Museum in Bristol has unveiled a new permanent display of the controversial statue of 17th-century…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,66448,43,1284,19889,214047,2521],"class_list":["post-500173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-morecambe","tag-news","tag-standard","tag-the-beatles","tag-trafalgar-square","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}