| Yuri Gagarin | |
| Image Upright: | 1 |
| Artist: | After Anatoly Novikov |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Type: | Zinc statue |
| Italic Title: | no |
The Statue of Yuri Gagarin in Greenwich, London, is a zinc statue depicting the cosmonaut wearing a spacesuit and standing on top of a globe. The 3.5m (11.5feet) high statue is a replica of an original by Anatoly Novikov in Lyubertsy, where Gagarin was trained as a foundry worker.[1] It was a gift to the British Council from the Russian space agency Roscosmos as a part of several cultural events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
The figure was originally unveiled on 14 July 2011 at a temporary location in the Mall, close to Admiralty Arch and facing the statue of Captain James Cook.[2] This location was chosen as it was where Gagarin first met the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.[3] It was later moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at a site overlooking the Prime Meridian line, and was unveiled at the new location on 7 March 2013.[4] [5] There had been an unsuccessful proposal to move it to Manchester.[6]