11-05-2025
Workman steps up to help million-pound Marble Arch renovation
A million pounds and two years in the making, the completion of the Marble Arch restoration project hinged on one helpful scaffolder who stepped in to save the day.
One of the arch's Victories, which displays winged women representing military triumphs in the Napoleonic wars and modelled on ancient Greek sculptures of the goddess Nike, was missing a foot. 'I was complaining to anybody who would like to hear about this foot,' said Olga Vladic-Weal, a conservation architect who worked on the project.
Soon afterwards, the intricately carved winged statue flying high above London's streets, was whole again and pointing a somewhat less delicate workman's foot. 'One day, I said to someone on site: 'I would love to know whose foot this is',' Vladic-Weal said.
