Leicester's first-ever statue set to be relocated in market revamp

The Duke of Rutland's statue has already been moved several times over the last 170 years

The first-ever statue erected in Leicester is set to be relocated as part of a multi-million revamp of the city's market.

The bronze sculpture of the fifth Duke of Rutland currently stands outside the Corn Exchange, but the city council now wants to move it to nearby Cheapside.

The relocation would return it to its original 1852 location in the city.

A planning application is being considered.

If approved, the statue will be moved to keep it safe from construction work during the ongoing £7.5m regeneration of Leicester market.

The sculpture was made in Leicester and originally funded by public subscription but was displayed in the London 1851 Great Exhibition, organised by Prince Albert - husband of Queen Victoria - to celebrate England's position as an industrial leader.

However, it was later returned to the city and unveiled in Cheapside in front of 50,000 people.

The stature will be cleaned up when it is moved, the council said

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said The Builder, a magazine of the time, reported on the statue, writing: "Most of our readers will remember the strange, loose figure of the Duke in the Great Exhibition: it stood in the west nave.

"His grace is made to appear positively intoxicated; and we may expect, if it be put up without alteration, to find the old proverb of 'as drunk as a lord' giving place in Leicester to 'as drunk as the Duke'".

The statue was considered to be getting in the way of the "increasing traffic flow" around Cheapside by 1868, so it was moved to the Corn Exchange.

The Duke was then moved again, in 1931, to Everard Place Gardens near West Gate, which is now St Nicholas' Circle, where it remained until 1967.

Then, after four years in storage, the statue was replaced near the Corn Exchange.

The council said it would use the relocation as an opportunity to clean the statue's bronze work.