Bear Statue - Cardiff Castle, Wales.
N 51° 28.866 W 003° 10.999
30U E 487270 N 5703343
The 'Bear' one of the original 9 animal sculptures on what came to be known as the The Animal Wall, when built outside Cardiff Castle. Designed by William Burges in 1866, Now located on the perimeter wall of Bute park, Cardiff, Wales.
Waymark Code: WME6CX
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/09/2012
Views: 8
The 'Bear' is one of 15 animal sculptures on the top of a castellated capped wall, they are approx. 50 feet apart, the wall now forms part of the perimeter wall of Bute Park, but when built was located outside Cardiff Castle.
"The Animal Wall was designed by William Burges in 1866, but it was not built until 1890, after Burges's death in 1881. The work of the restoration of Cardiff Castle and the building of the Animal Wall for the Marquess of Bute, was continued by his former assistant William Frame. The original nine animal figures were sculptured by Thomas Nicholls, they were the hyena, wolf, apes, seal, bear, lioness, lynx, and 2 different lions. They were painted in naturalistic colours, although since then the paint work on the sculptures has been removed.
The wall was moved about 50 metres (160 ft) from outside Cardiff Castle to its present location outside Bute Park in 1922, due to road widening in front of the castle in Duke Street and Castle Street (now the A4161).
In 1931 a further six animals were added; the pelican, ant-eater, racoons, leopard, beaver and vulture. They were all sculptured by Alexander Carrick.
In the 1970s Council planners had wanted to demolish the Animal Wall to widen the Castle Street again, but this idea was later abandoned.
As part of a £5.6 million refurbishment of Bute Park, restoration of the animals began in July 2010. During the repair, the anteater's missing nose, which has been missing since the late 90s, was replaced as well as the missing glass eyes in the nine original animals. This work was completed in October 2010."
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