Shine rubs off on memorial facelift

12:00pm Tuesday 18th November 2008

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Workmen have been criticised for a refurbishment which left a war memorial looking “shabby” for Remembrance Sunday.

The Royal Sussex Memorial in Regency Square, Brighton, had been coated with bronze paint, which has already begun to flake off.

Jason Kitcat, Brighton and Hove City Councillor for Regency ward, said he had been contacted by several unhappy residents.

Coun Kitcat said: “It is the centrepiece of the square and the last vestige of greatness in the gardens, which have been quite forlorn since the car park was installed beneath them. It’s a great shame that at this time of remembrance it has been allowed to become so shabby.”

The memorial was given a makeover in April to repair weathering and damage caused by vandals.

The plinth and statue, which commemorates those who died in the Boer War, was shrouded in scaffolding and sheeting while the work was carried out.

Stonemasons cleaned the memorial and refixed and repaired letters and numerals.

At the same time they repainted the bronze sections, leaving them gleaming as if the metalwork had been polished.

Several complaints were made shortly afterwards when residents noticed that what they initially thought was bronze was actually paint.

Anthony McIntosh, an academic at the University of Brighton who has been logging every public artwork in Sussex, had criticised the refurbishment.

He said: “I was horrified by the facelift. I’m not sure I appreciate the point of painting a bronze statue bronze. It is a strange thing to do.”

Coun Kitcat said he made inquiries about what had been done and was told it was standard practice to paint the statue every ten years and it would gradually weather over time.

He said: “I was willing to accept that if that is how it has been done in the past. But the paint is already wearing away and it has only been a few months. There is no way it is going to last ten years.”

Coun Kitcat has called for the workmen responsible for the facelift to be called back to put the work right.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said: “We’re very aware of the problem with the bronze finishing on the memorial and are as disappointed about it as residents are.

“We’re meeting the contractors who carried out the work next week to get it put right.

“Any rectification will be undertaken at the contractor’s expense with no cost to the council.”

What do you think about the memorial's facelift? Should it have been left as it was? Tell us below.