UKH

What are your favourites, off the top of your head? Don't think about whether they are "dubious", just your favourite statues. 

Monuments like the Nelson's Column in London, Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, don't count. I mean more accessible ground level "free standing" ones outdoors (not in museums)

 

I like the Massive Heids and M8 Horse. AotN takes some beating for impact though.

https://www.brussels.info/peeing-boy/

He was dressed in a uniform when we saw him, with his flies undone

I'm less keen on the heads, but the horse is terrific.

I wonder if the Kelpies count as a monument or a statue? They're certainly perfectly accessible:

https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/the-helix-home-of-the-kelpies-p88...

Guys, it's a trap! I suggest not drawing any attention to any statues you genuinely like at this moment in time. 

But honestly, not sure. I guess there's a good Oliver Cromwell statue in town which is quite nice.  Not really a specific statue, but those WW1 soldier outlines scattered all over the place are very impactful.

A statue is typically defined as a sculpture of a person and usually a recognisable/named person.

The Alison Lapper 4th Plinth would be quite high on my list. By and large I find statues a bit trite though.

proberly Alexei Leonov floating outside the NSC - I interpret it as him but could be White

or Captain Cook in Whitby or Boudicca on her Chariot (did she keep slaves?)

Balmat and Saussure in Chamonix

or the Commando Monument

Nelson's Column because it's an iconic British symbol.

BTW Nelson's Navy was definitely not racist. There were many black sailors serving on British Men o' War. They mixed and messed with the other crew members, and were treated and paid exactly the same as the white seamen.

Warsaw Uprising

How about the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow, what's not to like about the traffic cone.

I like L.S.Lowry in Mottram.  Appropriately modest and unassuming. 

And hospitable - statues don't usually invite you to share their plinth, but Lowry doesn't hog the whole of his bench and you're welcome to take a seat.

https://goo.gl/maps/xWAw8Xu6kSMYVzeJ7

Alice and the White Rabbit in Guildford is great: https://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/26/06/260626_87bd204b.jpg

There is only one contender https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3545624

Bring me sunshine!

I've always liked the Boudica statue by the Thames

This one has to be a contender- Dundee’s most famous son...! 
 

https://www.google.com/search?q=desperate+dan+statue&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB73...

though being Glaswegian, I personally prefer another denizen of the Wild West (coast of Scotland)...

https://www.google.com/search?q=lobey+dosser+statue&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB739...

The winner.

Close the thread now!  

Aria on the M80

That was my nomination for tearing down!

I passed that yesterday and it did come to mind, it was recently sporting a face mask. 

looks as if the nutters are after Captain Cook in Whitby

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/captain-cook-topple-racists-...

The press gang was truly liberal, did not care who they kidnapped. 

The finest. Innocent happiness and humour. And a dead ringer for my dad... 

For very personal reasons Gracie Fields in Rochdale.

I commissioned her, visited the artists studio in Suffolk to see her in clay, visited the foundry in London to see the unfinished bronze, helped choose the finish, ordered the plinth, supervised the installation and when she was unveiled by the late Roy Hudd, it was me behind the statue making sure that the cover came away cleanly when he pulled the ribbon.

I really like the Eric Morecambe statue, but also by the same artist Graham Ibbotson, is the Victoria Wood statue in Bury, which is a terrible likeness.

My apologies, I should have been more clear in the OP. I wanted people to name five of their favourite statues. It was a slightly rhetorical question borne from a friends comment elsewhere that statues (in the conventional sense that I thought I’d clarified in the OP, ie recognisable statues of public figures, commemorating them) are a bit naff and can anyone even think of five cherished ones. 

The woman smacking the neo Nazi with a handbag is a good call, though, and not so much about her as a famous person, but about a sentiment.  

Yes it does look a bit naff - maybe that's part of the charm? For sheer 'naff-ness' in every way this is hard to beat:

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5188619

Can't think many in Kirriemuir were aware they'd produced 'The world's greatest rock n roll legend'!

I think the Mel Gibson William Wallace one probably takes the biscuit for naffness.

Wow, I didn’t realise they actually did one! I thought Gibson nipped the idea in the bud. 

There had been talk of a Kevin Costner Robin Hood one in Nottingham a long time ago but that didn’t last long as an idea. 

An Alan Rickman Sheriff statue would have been better.

Yes! I'd forgotten about that one. I actually saw it the one time I was up at the Wallace Monument years ago. People were standing next to it for photos. I'm sure it even made it onto the cover of an OS map (well known for naff photos).

It was fing awful. They did at least move it to a less prominent site eventually.

Good grief! When was this put up?

What I VAGUELY remember is that in the wake of Braveheart, mid-1990s, the more extreme edges of what soon became more legitimised as the SNP (basically the "Britain First" aspect of it) was flyering with violently anti-English propaganda, using images of Gibson as Wallace on their flyers, and he (or the studio) quickly put a stop to this. At the same time there was some talk of a Wallace statue in the likeness of Gibson, and I am sure permission was not granted. But my recall is very vague and I am happy to be corrected on all of the above. 

Oh my goodness. They even have him dressing to the left :-O 

To paraphrase Ricky Tomlinson: 'Bray Fart my ar*e!'

1.Buddhas in Afghanistan  

2.The Motherland Calls statue in Stalingrad.

3.The Motherland in Kiev

4.Lenin In Donetsk. 

4.Jesus in Rio. 

Not long after the film I think. It was right in front of the visitor centre at the Wallace Monument so they were probably just cashing in on the film. It was pretty generally slated at the time I remember. Apart from all the various issues around using Mel Gibson as the model for Wallace and the historical inaccuracies that implies it's just an utterly fugly piece of sculpture. 

I nominate the 5 biggest heads on Easter Island.

Can I have the Birmingham Bullring Bull (official name The Guardian)? A good embodiment of Brummie pride:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bullring+bull+image&id=4E261B6703C...

Second, the wooden Whymper in the Ecrins, above Argentiere la Bessee: had many memorable trips with a mate who had an apartment up the valley towards Ailefroide, in Puy St Vincent, and Whymper was a sign we'd arrived.

Third, Young Will Shakespeare in Stratford on the grass in front of the theatre.

Other than that a couple already mentioned: Balmat & Saussure (always like to gaze upwards along with them when I first walk around Cham) and the Commandoes (always stop off for a brief moment of reflection when I'm en route from Fort William to Skye).

Five!

The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. 

I like the one of Shackleton at The RGS too, though I imagine they’re keeping a wary idea on the adjacent statue of David Livingstone. 

For sheer randomness, there is a rather fine Ronnie James Dio statue in Kavarna, Bulgaria

Here's a not very well known bit of public sculpture in Glasgow. L to R Tom Weir, Jimmy Reid and James Watt. I actually like the Weir one more than the better known one of him in Balloch.

If I have any tricky work to do on my way back through Frankfurt airport I get this guy to help me.

She also goes by a rather ruder name.

I'm with no_more_scotch_eggs in liking Lobey Dosser - a fine thing, and paid for by public subscription, I believe.

Re the Wallace Monument Braveheart/Gibson, in a way it's a shame it's not still there as there was entertainment to be had in going along and watching the considerable stream of (mainly) tourists getting their picture taken in front of it. It was widely disliked however and was eventually caged-in at night - amusing given the "Freedom" caption - to stop it being attacked. Remarkable that it made it on to the cover of the OS map for a while - there was a case to be made for it being the least-attractive public object on the whole of Landranger 57.

I like some of the Haida sculptures found around BC. The Raven and the First Men by Bill Reid is magnificent and whimsical at the same time. In a museum though rather than open air.

There's also the Spirit of Haida Gwaii in Vancouver airport.

There’s a nice one at London St Pancras. John Betjeman admiring the station roof.

https://www.riflemantours.co.uk/mother-canada-at-the-vimy-memorial-vimy-rid...

Mother Canada, grieving for her fallen sons, on the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge

https://gramho.com/media/2327713209985217692

I like the Ray Lonsdale sculptures (sorry they're not statues). The link above isn't far from my house, and now it's weathered in it has a real presence. He's done a lot of work in the North East prior to this one.