Liverpool’s iconic Eleanor Rigby statue has been taken away for repairs after being damaged.
Earlier this month, the reclining bronze figure situated on Stanley Street was found partially smashed, with portions of the stone seat collapsed on the ground. In October 2019, the bronze copy of a Liverpool ECHO newspaper which formed part of the statue was stolen, along with the inscribed plaque behind it.
The plaque, which refers to The Beatles' famous 1966 hit Eleanor Rigby with the quote "all the lonely people", was also stolen in September 2018. The statue was designed by Tommy Steele, who offered to create a tribute to the Fab Four after performing in Liverpool in 1981.
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It was unveiled the following year, and depicts the fictional Ms Rigby, who "lives in a dream, waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door". It had been feared originally that the recent damage caused to the statue had been the result of mindless vandals targeting the historic monument.
However CCTV later found there was no criminality involved and the damage had been caused by an "unfortunate accident."
Liverpool Council confirmed the statue has now been removed this morning to undergo the necessary improvements and refurbishments following an assessment of its current state.
There had been concerns that the city council would have to fund repairs for the historic artwork amid having to find £73m in budget savings ahead of the new financial year. When the statue was found damaged, a spokesperson for Liverpool Council said: “Following a review of CCTV footage we can see that the damage over the weekend to the Eleanor Rigby statue was an unfortunate accident.”
The statue was loaded onto a flatbed truck by two council officers on Stanley Street this morning. The piece took nine months to construct and was formally unveiled in 1982.
The Stanley Street installation has long been a popular location for people to take pictures alongside the bronze woman and her shopping bag containing a milk bottle and a piece of bread. A sparrow sits atop her copy of the ECHO.
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