Put Sir Titus back where he belongs

10:26am Friday 9th May 2008

Described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as Bradford's miniature Albert Memorial', the statue of Titus Salt sits tucked away in a dark corner of Lister Park.

Originally, this glorious public sculpture stood outside the Town Hall. Indeed, the elaborate gothic canopy was designed by architects Lockwood and Mawson to harmonise with the building they had also designed.

Even the detailed carving on the statue was the work of the same sculptors who had created the thirty-five monarchs that surround the Town Hall.

The statue was unveiled in August 1874, two years before Salt's death. The 14-ton statue was carved from white Italian carrarar marble. Surrounded by ornate railings, the statue was a notable addition to the city centre.

In January 1877, Salt's funeral procession passed by the statue en route to his final resting place at Saltaire.

Evergreen wreaths were hung from the railings and the statue itself wore a black cloth of mourning. It took a whole 30 minutes for the entire procession to pass by Titus Salt's memorial.

Twenty years later, the statue was removed as it was claimed it was an obstruction to traffic. Many believed that the move was inspired by political and personal jealousy, rather than any real concern for the flow of traffic. Nevertheless, Salt was exiled to a damp corner of Lister Park behind the Norman Arch. There he sits to this day in not so splendid isolation.

In 2003, there was an abortive attempt to have the statue relocated to Saltaire itself. In my view, this suggestion was ill-conceived. After all, there is already a statue of Salt in Roberts Park. The large memorial would have been out of place in both scale and architectural style in the village.

The fact that the statue was designed to complement Bradford's superb Town Hall is reason enough to return the statue to its former location, just as its designers intended it. Salt himself didn't object to its central location, so who are we to argue with the man himself?

The time has surely come to place this architectural masterpiece back in the public realm. A tiny fraction of the money received from the sale of the airport could be used to give Centenary Square another focal point. Recent decades have seen the large tracts of the historic core of Bradford destroyed.

Here we have the opportunity to restore a small, but significant, part of it.

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