A different kind of pride will be in Exhibition Park from today as 25 life-sized bronze lions have arrived in the city centre beauty spot.
International wildlife charity Born Free brings Born Free Forever to Newcastle in partnership with Urban Green Newcastle which manages Exhibition Park, to raise awareness of the plight facing the world's lion population. It follows a stint in Waterloo's Millenium Green in London and will be opened by star of 1966 film Born Free, Virginia McKenna.
The exhibition's installation in the North East is particularly poignant for Virginia and her son Will Travers, who are co-founders of the charity. Born Free Forever is part of a year of action for lions in memory of Virginia's late husband and Will's father Bill Travers MBE, a wildlife campaigner born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne who would have turned 100 this year if not for this sudden and tragic death in 1994.
