Gallus Glasgow W: Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo and twice Prime Minister, has sat on his horse outside what is now the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) since 1844. For the first 140 years or so he was unmolested, but sometime around the 1980s the tradition of capping him with a traffic cone emerged. The council and the police don’t like this, but as fast as they take one down, another goes up in its place, costing, allegedly, £10,000 per year to remove.
In 2013, Glasgow City Council considered a £65,000 plan to raise the statue’s plinth in an attempt to deter the ‘coning’ of the Duke. This led to #Conegate: a storm on Twitter and Facebook, an online petition and even a rally to Keep the Cone. The plans were quietly dropped and the cone remains. GoMA (owned by the council which so dislikes it) continues to sell greetings cards of the coned Duke and a new hotel is using his image in its interior decor because it represents the humour of Glasgow. I found the article about this quite hilarious. Apparently the Sculptor in Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland (me neither) thinks the cone is comparable to “acts of cultural destruction carried out by so-called Islamic State.” Get a grip!
The street artists are getting in on the act too. I came across the mini-Wellington above in Buchanan Street before Christmas. I’m not sure he’d want to ride into battle on that horse, but he looks pretty gallus all the same.
X is a bothersome letter – I bet lots of people have to cheat a bit, and I’m no exception. Come back tomorrow to find out what Glasgow X represents.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
What in the world is a Sculptor in Ordinary to the Queen? And I’m sorry, but I don’t think the “Islamic state” would be putting cones on top of statues’ heads. If he’s speaking of terrorists, they’d be blowing it up. The tiny horse statue is hilarious.
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Oh, we have all sorts of bizarre titles here, I don’t know what most of them mean. Pompous idiot in this case I think!
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Ha, ha! You’re probably right!
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I never realised there was a Wellesley statue in Glasgow. May the coning continue!
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Knowing Glaswegians, it will!
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That’s fantastic! I’m unsure whether to take outrage for moking an historical figure and statue or being amused by the humour of the act 🙂
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Go with the humour! You’ll be in better company.
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Seeing Wellington with his ‘hat’ always makes me smile. I’ve seen him with a scarf in winter as well, obviously someone worried he was going to get a bit chilly.
Didn’t he feature in the opening for the Commonwealth Games as well? 😉
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I think he did. And when they were painting the pillar boxes gold for the Olympic medal winners someone gave him a gold cone!
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£10,00 a year? My goodness I’m sure they could think of better ways to spend the money.
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Exactly!
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I love the cone. With all the art in your city, I think it’s a great fit 😉 Lots of old statues in the world that people never take the time to look at.
You can find me here:
ClarabelleRant
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Yes, nobody would even look at it otherwise. Just another statue of the “great and good”.
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Cone-headed Wellington makes me all kinds of happy, as do Stoddard’s fatuous remarks. Interesting title, Sculptor in Ordinary–that’s new to me. Always pick up something fun, fascinating or both on your blog!
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Thank you! I think the UK specialises in these daft, outdated titles.
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My friend and I are planning a trip to the UK at the end of the year and will definitely be heading up to Scotland as part of it. Now we’ll have to go and find this statue to ensure he’s got his cone on 🙂
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I’m almost sure he will!
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Oh it’s late but you put a smile on my face! I am so glad they keep coning the Duke
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Ha ha, tell Glaswegians what they can’t do and they get mad and go right out and do it.
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I read about the cone last week – I was wondering if you would be doing something on it! I guess my question has been answered!
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Can’t leave out the cone! Hey, maybe an idea for a Choppy costume in there! 😉
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I saw one on our evening walk and definitely considered it! I’m thinking on will definitely be in her future!
– Sarah (and Choppy) –
Travels with Choppy
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