Seafront statues get a deep clean

Specialist maintenance and cleaning work is to be carried out on two of Brighton & Hove's most prominent monuments over the coming weeks.

Scaffolding will go up around the Peace Statue, near Brunswick Lawns, and the Queen Victoria statue at the bottom of Grand Avenue this week.

Heritage and conservation experts, working on behalf of Brighton & Hove City Council, will be painstakingly cleaning and carrying out any necessary repairs to the two bronze statues, which take a battering from the elements because of their exposed seafront location.

The statues have not been cleaned for some time and, as well as removing years of grime and salt, work on the Peace Statue will include removing red paint daubed by vandals several years ago. The works will involve repairs to the supporting stonework plinths and the statues themselves will receive a protective wax coating.

The work is being undertaken by PAYE Conservation http://www.payeconservation.net/. It is due to commence later this week and is expected to go on for around eight weeks.

• The Peace Statue was built as a memorial to Edward Vll and depicts a 30ft angel holding an orb in her left hand and an olive branch in the right. The statue was unveiled by the Duke of Norfolk in 1912.
• The statue of Queen Victoria was commissioned in 1897 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne, and was not unveiled until 1901, the year she died.