{"id":236341,"date":"2025-10-31T17:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/236341\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T17:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:48:08","slug":"new-statue-installed-in-lowestoft-ahead-of-grand-unveiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/236341\/","title":{"rendered":"New statue installed in Lowestoft ahead of grand unveiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A major community campaign<\/a> to honour Benjamin Britten is nearing its conclusion<\/a> – with the bronze monument set to look out over the sea that inspired him in his birth town of Lowestoft.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Benjamin Britten. Picture: Supplied (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n

\n And next month, one of Britain’s best-loved composers, Sir John Rutter – who sang for Britten on the 1963 recording of the War Requiem – will unveil the new Britten as a Boy statue.\n<\/p>\n

\n But ahead of a special ceremony and the grand unveiling on Monday, November 10 the monument has now been installed at Lord Kitchener’s Garden on Kirkley Cliff in south Lowestoft.\n<\/p>\n

\n Groundworks had started at Lord Kitchener’s Garden on Kirkley Cliff in south Lowestoft for the installation back in September. (Image: Mick Howes)\n<\/p>\n

\n The statue, including its installation, has cost around \u00a3120,000.\n<\/p>\n

\n And officials from the Britten as a Boy statue committee – who had launched an appeal<\/a> to raise the monies for the monument back in April 2022 – were there on Wednesday to see it being finally craned into place.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Britten as a Boy statue is carefully craned into place on Lowestoft seafront. Image: The Britten as a Boy statue committee (Image: The Britten as a Boy statue committee)\n<\/p>\n

\n The statue – which was sculpted by the Royal sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley – arrived by lorry from the foundry in Wales at around 10am.\n<\/p>\n

\n After reaching the gardens area – also known as the Twinning Gardens, close to the Claremont Pier in Lowestoft – the statue was manoeuvred into place near Britten’s childhood home at 21 Kirkley Cliff Road and on a site near one of his early schools, South Lodge School, which he attended from the age of eight.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Britten as a Boy statue committee members, from left to right: Matthew Grafton, Phil Aves, Zeb Soanes, Ruth Wharrier and Elizabeth Talbot. Image: The Britten as a Boy statue committee (Image: The Britten as a Boy statue committee)\n<\/p>\n

\n It took just over three hours to install, and the statue will now remain covered until its grand unveiling by Sir John Rutter at 2pm on November 10.\n<\/p>\n

\n The special ceremony will include the premiere of a commemorative song entitled \u2018What Bliss is Home\u2019, with music by Suffolk composer Ben Parry and lyrics by Zeb Soanes.\n<\/p>\n

\n The song\u2019s title is taken from a diary entry made by Britten aged 15, expressing his deep affection for his hometown of Lowestoft.\n<\/p>\n

\n The ceremony will be attended by members of Britten\u2019s family and St Mary\u2019s Primary School children who will sing the specially composed song.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major community campaign to honour Benjamin Britten is nearing its conclusion – with the bronze monument set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-236341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}