London

A statue of Lord Byron, erected in what was part of Hyde Park at the time but is now marooned in a roundabout, should be moved to a better location, according to a campaign that aims to do just that.

The sculpture, officially the Byron Memorial Statue, was installed near Hyde Park Corner in 1880 in a tear-shaped slice of the park known as Hamilton Gardens.

However, in the late 1950s, the road layout around Hyde Park Corner was radically changed, with Hamilton Gardens substantially reduced to make space for more roads, and the Byron statue ended up isolated and alone on a roundabout.

Getting up close to the statue now requires a dash across three busy lanes without any pedestrian crossings.

It wasn’t supposed to be like that though, as the government had promised to relocate the statue during the road works. They didn’t.

On the bicentenary of his death, the Byron Society is trying to fulfil that promise with a fundraising campaign to restore and move the statue.

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