Angel of Industry
Hartlepool Steel Fabrications
The Angel of the North, the largest public sculpture in the UK and one of the North East's most famous landmarks began its life in Hartlepool.
The Angel of the North stands proudly on a hillside in Gateshead welcoming visitors to the North East and celebrating the region's industrial heritage. Easily seen from the A1 and the East Coast Mainline more than 90,000 people per day pass the sculpture making it one of the most-viewed works of art in the world.
The Angel was designed in 1997 by Antony Gormley OBE and his original castings were scanned and scaled up using computer aided design (CAD) to create the final dimensions for the construction.
It was constructed by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications using 200 tonnes of weatherproof Cor-ten steel which contains copper and develops a red/brown patina with age. The 3 sections, the body and two wings, were then transported to Gateshead by road and finally put in place in February 1998.
The Angel stands taller than 4 double decker buses at 20m tall, and has a wing span of 54m, which is almost as wide a jumbo jet. It contains enough steel to build 4 Chieftan tanks and its foundations contain 150 tonnes of concrete reaching 20m into the hillside. It is intended to last 100 years.
Submitted by: Sarah McLusky, 18 November 2003
