Beat that New York – we have a giant horse as our landmark
By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

New York has the Statue of Liberty, Pisa has the leaning tower, Paris has the Eiffel tower, and Kent is working on building the Ebblesfeet Landmark. A 164ft high statue of a horse, yes, taller than the Statue of Liberty and stuck in the middle of a field in Kent.

Beat that New York – we have a giant horse as our landmark

Wasting money in a recession

We are in a recession, economic downturn or whatever you want to call it, people are being made redundant in their droves, so let’s spend £2million on a new landmark, I mean, would you really spend time visiting a giant horse in a field.

I know I wouldn’t. I have no idea who is spending this money on this ludicrous statue, apparently, its private funders, but couldn’t the money be put to better use. Some people have too much time on their hands.

Need to get priorities right

I’m really worried about this country; we need to start to get our priorities right. Am I being a boring Northerner, or do you agree that this is a waste of money, and what do you think the money could be better spent on.


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13 responses to “Beat that New York – we have a giant horse as our landmark”

Itinerant Geoff | 11 February, 2009 at 12:25 am

I’ll probably get everyone else disagreeing with me, but I truly think it’s fantastic. Even during good economic conditions, you can always make the argument that it’s better spending money on essentials than it is on fine art, or building museums, or great (rather than functional) architecture, or sporting venues or events. But if we kept doing that, the world would be a duller place, there would be less joy in our lives….and less reason to travel as a tourist.

Did the Parisians do a cost-benefit analysis before building the Eiffel Tower? (or before donating the statue of Liberty to the USA)? Of course not. In fact if they had, both would probably have failed. And yet both give endless benefit to their local economies via tourist dollars, and add pride and self-confidence to the locals, something you can’t put a price on. Locals in the North East heavily criticised the Angel of the North as a waste of money, now it’s a matter of civic pride and a source of tourism. I personally can’t wait to see the horse up close. It’s private money, and if they can afford then I say go for it, it’ll be good for the South-East.

Great post though Darren, we may disagree but it’s important to have these kinds of debate.

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Andy | 11 February, 2009 at 8:10 am

“would you really spend time visiting a giant horse in a field. ”

Only if it talks. “Hello, how are you today?” Fawlty Towers moose style.

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Lee Harrison | 11 February, 2009 at 8:46 am

Is there not a Statue of Billy Bremner in your parts Darren? Good Post by Geoff although I also agree that the Money could be spent on better things at this present time.

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James | 11 February, 2009 at 8:59 am

Money well spent IMHO. 2 million is chicken feed really and you get a lasting landmark in which the benefits can’t be quantified.

I would be more worried about your bankers paying themselves bonuses for driving the British banking system into near ruin.

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Joanne | 11 February, 2009 at 10:52 am

WASTE OF MONEY – FACT!!! Typical of this country. I am sorry, but you can not compare a giant horse to the leaning tower or pisa or the eiffel tower!!! These are landmarks, the same as big ben is a landmark. A giant horse is not a landmark and I do not understand why people would want to go visit it. Simply a case of these ‘private’ funders have too much money, and clearly struggle to spend it. Shame they couldn’t donate the 2 million to a children’s hosital or another worthy charity! I understand that in times of economic crisis, we need to carry on with things such as these, but the best they could come up is a horse?!? Really…. the mind boggles!

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Nick | 12 February, 2009 at 4:33 pm

waste money like the Manchester big bang? or the Angel of the North?

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Murray Harrold | 12 February, 2009 at 4:37 pm

Yes, why not have a horse? I mean, we already have the land of the concrete cow (Milton Keynes)? The land of the white elephant (Houses of Parliment, sorry, I mean the Dome) Obviously as we have sooo much money to throw around, 52 billion at the last count, a paltry 2 million is just petty cash. A few million here, a few million there and pretty soon you are talking about real money. Pity they can’t find £180 to fix the boiler at my daughter’s school, though.

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TLV | 16 February, 2009 at 12:36 am

According to Wikipedia the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet tall. That includes the pedestal, of course. The question is – will the horse get as serious a pedestal?

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Darren Cronian | 16 February, 2009 at 12:35 pm

@ Nick / Murray

Priorities have gone out of the window, and I would love to know who these private investors are that are putting this silly amount of money. I think I read it would have 60m(?) visitors a year, but the majority of those would be car users driving past the motorway adjacent to the horse.

@ TLV

I think the size was probably measured for the actual statue rather than both the statue and pedestal. Even so, its a silly idea.

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Andy | 16 February, 2009 at 5:13 pm

From the Telegraph article – 3rd paragraph from bottom :)

“The sculpture is being financed by London and Continental Railways – which built the new high-speed rail link – Eurostar, and developer Land Securities.”

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Darren Cronian | 16 February, 2009 at 5:38 pm

@ Andy

Nice spot — which makes you think why the hell are they wasting the money when we need some money putting into our crap railway network!

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Mike Dare | 19 March, 2009 at 7:16 am

Being from the land down under I would be interested to know the gender of the proposed horse.
Having read countless blogs on the subject of the giant horse I am staggered by the negativity of you poms. Lighten up. The proposal is using private money and will provide a a humerous and a pleasant distraction from the ugly high-tension power pilons around the site. Can’t remove those ah?
Good art is usually discomforting and thought provoking. Mission accomplished I would say.

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