Here are some pictures from our archives, taken a few years ago when the Dying Gladiator pub, in Bigby Street, reopened after extensive refurbishment. No celebrity being available to cut the tape, guess who they asked?
We've visited The Glad on several Saturdays in recent weeks. And during the last one we thought we'd look out some pix from the files, to bring back a few memories.
It is said to be the only pub with this name in the UK.
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| Re-opening pub: Good work if you can get it! |
Clark's wooden sculpture is based upon a marble statue in a Rome museum, in Victorian times called The Dying Gladiator.
ReplyDeleteThe marble statue was a 'must see' destination on the affluent's Grand European Tours of C19th.
Clark was a friend of the Elwes (the Manor House - the old convent school) and it is known that the Elwes went on one ot these EGT...perhaps Clark went with them.
However, the Rome-based marble statue was later examined and was found to be the image of a Gaul ie distinctive hairstyle, shield etc. at the cusp of C19th/C20th...and officially renamed the Dying Gaul.
The statue was created circa 200BC..the time when Rome was doing battle with the Gauls in what is now France (ASTERIX & OBERLISK were Gaul characters).
Meanwhile, Clark's statue remains The Dying Gladiator..
There is another Dying Gladiator statue at ?Ilford Manor House in Wiltshire.....in a Cambridge museum, there is a bronze statue of the Dying Gaul..
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