COLOURFUL ENGLAND
ANGEL OF THE NORTH ~ GATESHEAD
The ‘Angel of the North’ was
commissioned by
Gateshead Council and created by
internationally
Renowned sculptor Antony
Gormley. It is Britain’s
Largest sculpture and believed
to be the world’s
Largest angel sculpture.
It is one of the most-viewed
pieces of art in the
World – seen by more than one
person every
Second, 90,000 every day or 33
million every year.
Work on the sculpture started in
July 1997 and
it was assembled on site seven
months later in February 1998.
The Angel was fabricated from
200 tonnes of
Weathering steel by Hartlepool
Steel Fabrications
Ltd on Teesside. It rises 20
metres (65ft) and has
A wing span of 54 metres (175ft)
– almost as big
As a jumbo jet.
‘People are always
asking why an angel? The only response I can give is
That no-one has ever
seen one and we need to keep imagining them.
The angel has three
functions – firstly a historic one to remind us that below
This site coal miners
worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to
Grasp hold of the future
expressing our transition from the industrial to the
Information age, and
lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears.’
ANTONY GORMLEY, Sculptor
The angel has an external
skeleton of ribs
Cut from 59mm thick steel with
the skin in
6mm sheet steel bent and welded
to form
The body shape.
Ove Arup and Partner’s acted as
technical
Experts on the design and the
site, and
The foundations were prepared by
Thomas Armstrong (Construction)Ltd.
The site was cleared, old mine
workings
Were filled weith grouting and
eight holes
Drilled, each ¾ metre across.
One hundred and Fifty tonnes of
concrete
Were poured around steel
reinforcement
To form massive piles to root
the sculpture
Into solid rock 20 metres below
ground.
A concrete slab one and a half
metres
Thick and covering an area 13
metres by
8 metres was then laid on top of
the piles.
A plinth 5.3 metres high was
built on the
slabs
and cast into it are 52 bolts – each
Three metres long – onto which
the Angel
Is fixed.
