Bronze Woman

The Bronze Woman statue was unveiled in 2008 and was the first public monument in the UK to honour a black woman. Its design was based on a poem, written in about 1960, of the same name by Guyana-born Cecile Nobrega, who lived in Stockwell and campaigned for 10 years for this statue. The campaign was supported by local residents, artists, schools, activists and partner organisations including Olmec. Sculptor Ian Walters died after making the model for the statue and Aleix Barbat finished the work. The installation marked both the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship (British passenger vessel arriving at Tilbury Docks in Essex on June 22, 1948, carrying 492 Caribbean migrants) and the 200th anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade. Cecile Nobrega was a composer, artist, writer and poet. Her poem ‘Bronze Woman’, published in 1968, traces the experience of women who, from the days of slavery onwards, sacrificed all to ensure their children would be “a step away / from want and need: / a step away from toil and sweat / the heat of the day”, the woman who often had to play the role of “father-mother”, a “monument of love”.

The status is 10 foot high and barefooted. The bronze woman wears a sleeveless, knee-length dress and a head-wrap that ties back into a bun at the nap of her neck. Chin tilted up, she looks into the eyes of the baby she has raised above her head. It was unveiled in 2008 by The Rt Hon Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, with Cécile Nobrega and many others including Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE.

Now approaching 20 years since its unveiling, the statue is showing deterioration due to weathering and environmental exposure. It will be cleaned to remove failed wax residue, areas of corrosion removed, treated, re-patinated to the original patina and waxed.