5:36pm Wednesday 16th January 2002
Brent Cross Shopping Centre is being mooted as a possible site for a sculpture originally intended to create a welcoming gateway to Golders Green.
The 95ft wrought iron work of art was meant to be in place on the Northern Line bridge in Finchley Road to celebrate the new millennium. However, two years on, it lies in pieces and gathering dust in a storeroom at Golders Green Tube station.
In September last year, London Underground [LU] offered the council £10,000 to move it elsewhere as engineering works there mean the piece can not be installed until this autumn at the earliest.
The sculpture's creator Kevin Boyes said: "The council has told me they've written to the Highway's Commission and Brent Cross Shopping Centre to ask if they have any room for it. I'm still angling to get it up on the bridge as it is a site-specific piece but all other possibilities have to be exhausted."
A spokesman for the shopping centre said: "We've not been approached yet but we would certainly discuss it with the council.
“The only issue would be that it was meant for Golders Green but it looks good so we would try and find a place for it."
Mr Boyes admitted if the original location for the sculpture is altered, the 180 bolt holes and brackets needed to keep the sculpture in place will have to be scrapped and new ones made: "All of the fittings will have to be changed if the piece is moved and new brackets will of course cost more money."
The council's director of environment Graham Beattie added: "We're very keen to get the sculpture in place as soon as possible for the benefit of the whole community and are doing our very best to find a suitable alternative site within the borough.
“We are investigating two avenues sites next to major highways and a shopping centre."
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