The Statue of Yuri Gagarin in Greenwich, London, is a zinc statue depicting the cosmonaut wearing a spacesuit and standing on top of a globe. The 3.5-metre (11 ft) high statue is a replica of an original by Anatoly Novikov in Lyubertsy, where Gagarin was trained as a foundry worker.[1][2] It was a gift to the British Council from the Russian space agency Roscosmos as a part of several cultural events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
The figure was originally unveiled on 14 July 2011 at a temporary location in the Mall, close to Admiralty Arch and facing the statue of Captain James Cook.[3] This location was chosen as it was where Gagarin first met the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.[4] It was later moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at a site overlooking the Prime Meridian line, and was unveiled at the new location on 7 March 2013.[2][5] There had been an unsuccessful proposal to move it to Manchester.[6]
51°28′38″N 0°00′08″W / 51.47731°N 0.002345°W / 51.47731; -0.002345