Bring The Foot Of The Walk Home
April 10, 2009 by Ally 
Has it escaped anyone else's notice that the Foot of The Walk is in the wrong place?
Before you think we've gone a bit daft, we're talking about a sculpture made by one of Leiths most famous sons, Eduardo Paolozzi. Paolozzi was born very close to the foot of the walk, and went on to become an internationally acclaimed sculptor. At the top of Leith Walk, there are three of his sculptures, which together are called the the Manuscript of Monte Casino. One of those pieces is of course a big, giant, bronze foot. You can probably see where we're going with this now!
The site where these sculpures are currently located, Picardy Place is set to be completely redesigned. It needs to accomodate a tram stop for one thing, and so this presents us with an opportunity to propose that the universally hated 'unicorn horn' that currently spoils the foot of the walk, be replaced with an altogether more appealing piece of public art - Paolozzi's foot!
We can only see good reasons to do this:
- It replaces an awful bit of public art with a fantastic one.
- It would support the economic regeneration of the area by encouraging tourists to the Foot of The Walk.
- It celebrates Paolozzi close to the place of his birth.
- The council already owns the sculptures, so it wouldn't cost much.
But that's not all. We note that there are proposals to put another set of sculptures by Anthony Gormley, of Angel of the North fame, along the Water of Leith, with two set for the lower reaches of the river. Is there an opportunity to build a world class sculpture trail here? Using the three Paolozzi pieces of the Manuscript of Monte Casino to lead people from the Foot of the Walk down to the Shore, people could then link up with the new Antony Gormley sculptures and follow them all the way up to the Gallery of Modern Art. We think it's a great idea and we hope you do too! If you do, then you can join the Facebook group we've created especially for the campaign. It's right here: http://tinyurl.com/c5dctz
We've submitted our call to bring the foot of the walk home to the council through their consultation on the Design Principles for Picardy Place. In our comments, we've also called for cyclists to be given a much better deal - at the moment they seem to have been forgotten in the design brief entirely.
You can read our entire submission to the planning department by clicking here.
Ally
"City arts impressario" Richard Demarco, has said publicly that splitting the three component pieces of The Manuscript of Monte Cassino would go against the wishes of Paolozzi. However, this doesn't presumably prevent their movement to the Kirkgate, where there's plenty of room to keep the sculptures together?
If the sculptures were kept together they could still provide an "anchor" for a sculpture trail - opening up opportunities for local sculptors to contribute further pieces to the trail down to the shore.
Action Alerts, Arts, Planning and Regeneration
Reader Comments (17)
I think taking the foot at the top of the walk to the foot of the walk pretty much guarantees you're going to win this one, even on aesthetics alone you've won the war.
One question though, you say that Picardy Place has to bring in a tram stop which will mean relocating Paolozzi's Foot. But doesn't the bottom of Leith Walk have to bring in a tram stop? And I reckon Picardy Place has more space at its disposal.
I am sure there is a way to incorporate a tram stop at the foot of the walk and Paolozzi's Foot but in terms of an argument to win the debate, I reckon that is your 'achilles heel'.
As the 'mock' tram is due down in Leith, at a similar location, very soon I wonder if the council would be receptive to the idea of moving the foot at the same time which would give the public two good reasons to visit the foot of the Walk? It would certainly be a double whammy and, if a similar number of people who visited the tram outside Jenners visit Leith, it would be a huge shot in the arm for that end of the street.
Every year Sydney hosts a sculpture exhibition along a coastal walk. It gets locals and tourists onto the walk and is great. It'd be a bit colder here but a permanent Sculpture Trail, starting or ending at The Foot (of the walk) couldn't be a bad thing.
This is the link to the Sydney Sculpture exhibition organisers website if anyone is interested. www.sculpturebythesea.com
My other half suggest we could offer up both the Narwal's Tusk and Queen Vic statues as a trade for the Foot (and a double win for Leithers!)
Let's give Picardy Place "The Horn"!
That's funny enough for me....besides what with those lanky giraffes outside the cinema its become a gathering place for longpods these days....
Rob
To clarify once again - GL proposes to move all three pieces to the Kirkgate, not just the foot. I don't think that the GL proposal is a 'knee jerk populist reaction,' at all. We submitted a well thought through proposal to the planning department on this issue. I don't think it's fair to dismiss the views of the growing number of people who've indicated their support for the proposal to move them to the Foot of the Walk (140 at the time of writing). Amongst them, The Leith Traders Association, Leith Central Community Council, the Deputy Provost and members of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
At the end of the day neither the Friends of Hillside, nor GL shall make the final decision. I'm not even sure that the Paolozzi sculptures will have to leave Picardy Place. Our point is that we believe there's an opportunity to put together a sculpture trail of international significance in Leith, and that is something that could be harnessed to support the regeneration of an area that really needs it at the moment. Whilst you've put together a good case to move them to the Hillside Crescent area, I'm personally not sure that moving them there would have the same overall impact.
There are now three options:
1. Move the sculptures to the Foot of the Walk, replacing 'the horn' as part of a redesigned street scape at the Foot of the Walk.
2. Move the sculptures to Hillside Crescent, as proposed by Friends of Hillside.
3. Retain the sculptures at Picardy place, although they'd still have to move within the street as part of the regeneration plans.
What do other folk think? I wonder if we'll be able to reach a consensus?
I'd also very much like to hear more peoples' views on this....... and I think its going to take time to make sure that people are aware of all the options....
......and just on one point of fact... I raised the issue at Leith Central Community Council at their last meeting on the 20th April.... (The "Foot of the Walk" is not in their area but Hillside Crescent Gardens is)..... Leith Central Community Council didn't take a stance either way though individual members were supportive...... but the Community Council Office Bearers argued, I think correctly, that the crucial issue was the degree to which decision makers in the Edinburgh City Council could be persuaded by the various proposers..... I hope we can get together on this one to reach the best, most creative consensus.......
Best wishes,
Rob
The bottom end of the Kirkgate (next to Links View House) is just undergoing some footpath improvements to improve the pedestrian and cycle links between the Shore and the bottom of Leith Walk. This is much needed as for non Leithers it can be quite confusing to to find a clear route through to the Shore, and placing the sculptures on the route would also act as a good marker.
This route is also of historic importance; it was originally called the "route to the alter stane" where sailors from the docks would come up to the church and to Leith Walk (if not waylaid by the "distractions" of the Shore on their way; apparently the church used to keep a light burning at all times to tempt them away from the ladies of the shore!). So highlighting this route with the sculptures would be really appropriate too.