The Angel of the North (The Angel of the North)

Member Name: englishrose

Product:	The Angel of the North
Date:	27/02/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Different.Open to everyone.

Disadvantages: It cost £800,000: that's a lot of hospitals and schools

We visited the Angel of the North on our way to a short break in Northumberland. It was almost as an afterthought that we decided to go and find it and see what all the fuss was about.

We are not artists nor do we know anything about art, but, as the saying goes, 'we know what we like'

And wow, I like this.

I had seen it on the news and read about it in the newspapers and all that, but I must admit I thought it sounded awful - another example of an artist being given an obscene amount of money to produce a pile of scrap, basically (or sometimes maybe you could take the 's' off!)

We were surprised to find that there is no specified car-parking though: Considering it's at the side of the A1 near Gateshead, and people are going to want to visit this structure, it seemed a bit of an oversight that people were having to just pull up on the pavement of the side road. Not very well organised.

Anyway, it's up on the top of a hill, then on it's own mound on top of that: As we walked up towards it, I suddenly realised how fantastic it is: Standing in front of it, head back, looking up at it, what hits you is the scale of it - It's so tall, then you see the wings spreading out to the side and it feels quite moving for some reason, like it's symbolically protecting the area around it.

I like the idea that it's a piece of work that's totally open to the public - We were able to sit on it's (his?) feet for photos, and we noticed that many people had scratched their names and messages into the metal.

There were no restrictions on what you could do around it, and of course no charge to go right up to it, which makes a refreshing change.

I even like the idea that the metal is supposed to rust - it's not some precious artefact, locked away from everyone, it's out there in all weathers for everyone to enjoy.


Make a point of going to see it close-up if you can, it's something really different.

Summary: Go and see it up close if you can, it's really different