19.06.2012

Eros' bow is back

The famous statue of Eros in Piccadilly has its original bow back a year after it was damaged by a Spanish football fan celebrating Barcelona winning the Champions League.

After climbing the statue he bent the original bow and broke its string. FM Conway, of Dartford was called in to carry out the expert repair. The company started by replacing the broken bow with a spare version that was in storage.

After consulting English Heritage FM Conway applied indirect heat treatment to the bow to bend it back into shape without compromising its structure or appearance. It then made a resin mould of the original bow in order to create a second spare should the two existing bows become damaged.

Finally after a delay of six months it was time to put the original bow back in place. In order to do this the company called on London based access specialist Universal Platforms, which provided a 17 metre telescopic Ascendant truck-mounted platform to allow the restoration engineer to reach the statue and change the bow.
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The 17 metre Ascendant provided safe access without disrupting the Piccadilly Circus traffic

The compact truck-mount set up on the pavement/sidewalk and provided safe access to the statue without disrupting the traffic.

The statue is unusual in that it is made of aluminium, it was created by sculptor Alfred Gilbert to commemorate Anthony Cooper, the seventh earl of Shaftesbury for his work with the poor and erected in 1892. The cost of the repair? Supposedly it is being charged back to the man who caused the damage.
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The Ascendant provided a perfect base from which to re-string the repaired bow