Sculpture proposed to mark our literary greats
Members of a civic campaign group want to erect a sculpture celebrating Leicestershire's literary history.
The Friends of New Walk has submitted a planning application to site a 1.8m-high granite cube, to be called Writers' Block, in De Montfort Square.
The group, a charitable trust, has asked architect Bill Smedley to create the £25,000 piece, which would be made from Mountsorrel granite.
Friends of New Walk trustee David Sturgis said: "We feel it is important to mark the contribution Leicester and the county has made to the literary world.
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"There are some names which spring to mind immediately, such as Philip Larkin, Joe Orton and CP Snow.
"But we have an open mind as to which names should be featured on the block."
Mr Sturgis said the work would be made up of different cubes of granite which would give the effect of a giant Rubik's Cube.
He said: "The idea is to use the sides of the separate smaller cubes to carry engravings of the names of writers.
"What we hope to do is to have a website where people can look up the names and learn more about the contribution of the writers."
Mr Sturgis said the selected site was towards the north west corner of De Montfort Square between New Walk and the diagonal footpath linking New Walk to the statue of Robert Hall.
Mr Sturgis said Writers' Block would cost about £25,000 and the money would come from private subscriptions.
Mr Smedley said: "We explored the idea of how we would mark the contribution of such writers and decided that a feeling of permanence was essential.
"That led us to think of stone and the stone most associated with Leicestershire is granite, so that gave us our working material."
The Friends of New Walk has already paid for and erected three sculptures marking different aspects of the city's and county's heritage.
The Clicker, which was installed in 2007, is outside Harvey Ingram's offices in New Walk.
The 2m bronze sculpture was erected to recognise the importance of the shoe industry.
The Clothier, which was installed in 2010, is in New Walk, on the east side of where it crosses Waterloo Way. The marble piece commemorates the part the city and county played in the textile industry.
The Concerto, which was also installed two years ago, is sited outside De Montfort Hall.
The work, a 2.5m-high stainless steel sculpture is to celebrate the importance of live performance music.
Mr Sturgis said: "Although the finished piece will be gifted to the city council in accordance with the precedents set with the Clicker, the Clothier and the Concerto, the trust will accept responsibility for its future maintenance."
Mr Sturgis said he wanted Mercury readers to suggest names of writers who could appear on the sculpture.
Nominations, with three lines of reasons as to why the writer should be included, should be sent to:
dgs@sturgis-snowandastill.co.uk
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