Edinburgh City Chambers may receive a new semi-permanent guest if a charity’s planning application is successful.
The Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity recently made an application to place a 1.5m tall statue of the city’s late charity fundraising champion Tom Gilzean outside the City Chambers Building.
“The sculpture will celebrate the life and fundraising achievements of Tom Gilzean who sadly passed away late 2019,” the application explained.
The sculpture depicts Gilzean in his usual tartan attire with a jolly smile on his face. The statue’s figure of Gilzean shows him sitting on top of one of Edinburgh’s black taxis.
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Gilzean died in Edinburgh in 2019 at the age of 99. He was a war veteran who raised more than £1m for charitable causes in his later years.
Gilzean was a regular fixture on Princes Street and the Royal Mile where he was often seen in his tartan trousers with his collecting tin.
In 2019, Gilzean was honoured with an Oor Wullie statue in his image, as part of a city-wide fundraising campaign called the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail. The statue proposed for the front of City Chambers is a similar representation.
The application specifies that the statue will not be a permanent fixture. The exact time frame will be agreed by the council, but initial discussions have proposed leaving Gilzean’s statue in place for two to three years. The sculpture will be removed after the time period agreed.
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