Fears that Virginia Woolf statue on Thames riverbank may tip vulnerable over the edge
PLANS for a full-size statue of Virginia Woolf sitting by a river have been deemed “reckless” because they risk distressing “vulnerable” people familiar with the author’s suicide by drowning.
The work, planned for a park bench on a bank of the Thames at Richmond, south-west London, got the green light from the local council this week, but campaigners have said the location is in bad taste.
Barry May, chairman of the Richmond Society, a local residents’ group, said: “Virginia Woolf was a distinguished author, an icon for the feminist cause and a famous resident.
“We believe placing it on the riverside would be ill-advised, insensitive and reckless, however.
“She drowned herself in a river at the age of 59 after a history of mental illness which blighted her life.
“A figure reclining on a bench gazing over the water might distress anyone who knows her story and is in a vulnerable state of mind.”
The modernist author of books including Mrs Dalloway killed herself in the Ouse in Sussex in 1941.
But proponents for the sculpture say that to “hide” the famous resident of Richmond in a residential street is offensive to her legacy.
Aurora Metro, a charity that has planned and been fundraising for the life-size figure, said: “Efforts by the Richmond Society to change the location of the statue which has been chosen for many practical reasons […] comes across as an attempt to push people like her out of sight.
The statue’s intent is to celebrate diverse lives and encourage conversations around mental health, feminism, sexuality and gender.
“This cannot be done if the statue is tucked away on a residential street.”
Councillors added that it would encourage the discussion of mental health issues after it was unanimously approved in Richmond council’s environment, sustainability, culture and sports committee earlier this week.
“It encourages discussion of mental health issues,” said James Chard, a Liberal Democrat councillor.
“People should not be defined by the existence of mental health issues that they’ve had and by the manner of their death and to move it away from the proposed location would be to allow Virginia Woolf to be defined in that way.”
Kate Howard, a Conservative councillor, said: “I think it would be very poignant to have a statue near the river as a reminder of how easily water can overcome you.”
Early mock-ups put together by acclaimed sculptor Laury Dizengremel reveal a full-size Woolf resting on a bench gazing out towards the water.
It is thought to be the first full-size portrait of the author, of whom there is a bust in Tavistock Square, central London.
The fundraiser for Woolf ’s statue has raised £35,000 of its £50,000 target.
Woolf lived with her husband at Hogarth House on Paradise Road in Richmond from 1915 to 1924.