Artist: George Adams
Location: Upper Close
Previously: Gentleman's Walk and Norwich market. Moved 13 January 1937
Description: The duke is shown on a plinth decorated with a coat of arms and regimental colours. The Norfolk Chronicle reported the unveiling ceremony:
'The hero is represented in the identical boots, cloak, and some other portions of dress actually worn at Waterloo, which were placed at the service of Mr Adams, the sculptor, when he was modelling the figure.'
The statue is shown in early prints and photographs, as a dominant figure on Gentleman's Walk facing Davey Place and the Castle. It was moved, as so often because of concerns over traffic, ironically since Gentleman's Walk was finally pedestrianised in 1988.
The coat of arms shows the Duke's insignia as knight of the garter, knight of the golden fleece and of the bath, resting on his four field marshal's batons and framed by regimental colours. The names of the battles now clearly legible after the recent cleaning.
The recent restoration was described in a letter from Stephen Brown, Senior Building Surveyor at Norfolk Property Services, April 2014:
'To begin with a light steam clean was carried out to remove built up dirt and deposits, a survey and assessment was then made to each figure to determine whether or not any repairs were required. Fortunately there only needed to be some local repairs and the majority was to the stonework and not the bronzes. The bronzes were then heated, waxed and buffed. And that is all that was required, no rough or mechanical cleaning was employed at all and no artificial colouring methods were used, just a simple wash and wax.'
Description (iconographical): The Duke of Wellington had died on 14 September 1852 and a meeting at the Guildhall on 27 October 1852 decided to open a public subscription for a statue in his memory. The following October it was decided that the statue should be of bronze and G. Adams was invited to submit a model.
Sir Samuel Bignold, mayor in 1853 and 1854, unveiled the statue, which had cost about £1,000, at a ceremony attended by 20,000 spectators. Sir Samuel may have played a part in the choice of Adams, since this was the first major public commission for an artist who in 1852 had established a reputation as a medallist, including his commemorative medal of Welllington isuued in 1852. Adams had also produced the death mask of the Duke, now in the National Portrait Gallery. Sir Samuel commissioned a small bust of himself, dated 1854, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855 and which formed part of the Bignold family collection now in the care of Aviva in Surrey House.
Inscriptions: At base of plinth: WELLINGTON.