Angel of The North

Extract from The New Travel Book -
North of Watford Gap - John Brown

 There are certain things and places that should carry a warning, or at least some form of recognition – like – 'Over the next hill is the biggest bleedin statue you are likely to see this side of Rio de Janeiro harbour, it will appear from nowhere on reaching the brow of a fairly mundane hill and will just as quickly disappear from view'. I'm talking of course about 'The Angel of The North'. There I was casually zipping along a dual carriageway through Gateshead, very little on my mind but my intended destination, Newcastle, when 'Pow', there it was on a hill to my right, I tell you I damn near crashed the car. The thing is enormous and very close to the road – Designed by Antony Gormley, it stands 66ft above Gateshead, and the outstretched wings have a massive span of 178ft, so it's not something that you could lose very easily. Work on the metal sculpture started in 1994 and was completed in February 1998 at a cost of one million pound, most of this borne by The Lottery Fund – so you haven't wasted your quid after all. It wouldn't be Newcastle if there hadn't been a link to football somewhere, for no sooner had the sculpture been officially unveiled, than a group of Newcastle United supporters placed a giant Newcastle United football shirt over it, a tribute to their hero Alan Shearer. The shirt came complete with Shearer's name and famous number 9. The police were soon on the scene to ensure its removal, but for a brief half hour, Alan Shearer really was the biggest name in football