A late Queen Elizabeth II statue could take up permanent residency on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth. 

The first time the fourth plinth was proposed as a spot for a statue of a monarch was in the early 1840s. Yet the idea was never materialised. Nowadays, the spot is often occupied by some temporary contemporary art exhibitions. 

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Back in 2013 already, London Mayor Ken Livingstone proposed the idea of erecting à statue for the UK’s longest ruling monarch. Following the Queen’s death on 8 September, this initiative naturally came back in the picture. 

Earlier this year, the fourth plinth hosted a quite unusual ice cream structure by Heather Phillipson as well as ship in a bottle designed by Yinka Shonibare. 

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In the meantime of the possible erection of the Queen’s statue, the spot will host a few other exhibitions, which had already book the place in advance. These include an anticolonial statue by Samson Kambalu and a sculpture by Teresa Marolles showing 850 plaster casts of the faces of trans people.

Rumours say that if a statue of the Queen was indeed to be placed on the famous spot, she would be depicted on horseback. 

Image: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen