If you need to contact the Council again in relation to this please email [email protected] OR call 020 7641 6000 and quote reference number C531782. The following information was received by the Council.
First Name: Niall
Surname: McDevitt
Email: [email protected]
Comments: – “I wish to complain about the removal of busts and statues of intellectual and artistic geniuses from Leicester Square”.
http://internationaltimes.it/flash-vandals/
Reason for contact: Other
Reason for contact: To fucking complain
Reference: C531782
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Westminster City Council switchboard: +44 20 7641 6000.
www.westminster.gov.uk
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Westminster Council’s reply:
Dear Mr McDevitt,
Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding the removal of busts and statues from Leicester Square. Please find our response as follows.
Please contact English Heritage on 0207 973 3000 as they are responsible for the statues. Also here is their website address www.english-heritage.org.uk.
I hope this is of some assistance to you.
Alternatively please visit our website http://westminster.gov.uk/ which may be of assistance with your enquiry.
Aileen Mackenzie
Customer Enquiry Advisor
Customer Enquiries
Westminster City Council
PO Box 240
Westminster City Hall
64 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QP
Telephone: 020 7641 6000
Fax: 0207 245 5510
e-mail: [email protected]
www.westminster.gov.uk
(Ah. Passing the buck. Eh?)
Another Westminster report confirmed the busts are Grade 2 Listed, and that their removal should have been temporary, lasting only for ‘the duration of the works’. Yet, the Square has been reopened without the busts, or any mention of them.
This letter appeared in the Independent of Mon 28 May:
A monumental Square clear-out
Your story on Leicester Square reopening (23 May) fails to mention that five monuments to famous artists and intellectuals have been removed. They are busts of William Hogarth, Isaac Newton, John Hunter, Joshua Reynolds and a statue of Charles Chaplin. Westminster council claims English Heritage are responsible for the artworks, but just who was responsible for the decision? Only Shakespeare remains. If a similar sort of thing had happened in Paris, it would be a scandal. (Niall McDevitt, London W6)
Richard Godwin’s piece appeared in Evening Standard on May 30:
This is the missing bust of Hogarth:
IT Anti-Philistine Squad