£84k clean-up aims to make cenotaph more fit for heroes

Work to rejuvenate the Victoria Park cenotaph is under way as preparations begin for the city's First World War centenary commemorations.

Leicester City Council is spending £84,000 on repairing the 89-year-old memorial's roof, repointing its stonework and bringing the sheen back to the plaques and brasswork.

The memorial arch was designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, who also designed the cenotaph in London, and was last cleaned in 2006.

The council also wants to carry out extensive repairs in Peace Walk at the gates, which form the entrance to the memorial.

A bid for £300,000 has been submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out the work. If successful, work would begin early next year.

The clean-up comes as the council embarks on a summer of events to mark the centenary of the Great War, which broke out on July 28, 1914.

About 8,000 servicemen from Leicestershire lost their lives in the four-year conflict, which included the horrors of trench warfare in France and Flanders.

Deputy city mayor Rory Palmer said of the cenotaph: "It's profoundly important and commands quite a dominating presence on the city skyline, as it should, given all that it signifies of the sacrifices made during the two world conflicts.

"It's a profoundly important part of the city and we want to make sure it's kept in the best condition possible – especially in this centenary year."

Huge crowds are expected to turn out at Leicester Cathedral on August 4 for a Lights Out vigil marking the day Britain joined the Great War. The city will also remember two local heroes who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War, by laying down commemorative paving stones as part of the centenary programme.

The events will continue throughout the year and include the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, which takes place at De Montfort Hall, on Saturday, October 25.

Hundreds are expected to gather to pay tribute to the war dead.

David Atterbury, chairman of the Royal British Legion in Leicestershire and Rutland, said: "The legion is known as the custodian of remembrance and we're at the forefront of pushing remembrance out to the county.

"We want to make sure the sacrifices made are never forgotten by future generations.

"The event at De Montfort Hall has been built up over the past 60 years and will be a fitting memorial to servicemen and women everywhere – but will have a special Great War theme this year."

As well as the main cenotaph being cleaned, a further £19,000 will be spent cleaning Evington war memorial and landscaping the area around it.

The Bridge Road School memorial, carrying the names of 133 of the former school's pupils lost in the 1914-18 conflict, will also be cleaned at a cost of £4,000.

The wooden memorial at St George's Church, in the Cultural Quarter, will also receive some attention.

The city council is also planning a £1.5 million project to create a processional route linking the cenotaph and Victoria Park's main gatehouse.

The grade-I-listed quadrifronic (four-faced) arch does not have any of the names of the fallen servicemen from Leicester inscribed on it.

Instead, the 8,000 men who died during the conflict are held in a book of remembrance in the city.

"Leaving off the names would have been a deliberate device to show the fallen were so numerous, almost incalculable," said Professor Steven Brown, of the University of Leicester school of management. "This is a very powerful statement in that it generates a common sense of loss without putting a name on it."

The university itself is a unique memorial to the Great War. Its motto, Ut Vitam Habeant – "so that they may have life" – honours the war dead.

Prof Brown's colleague and PhD researcher Elizabeth Blood said: "War memorials, are as old as conflict itself.

"It was an important part of the mourning process to be able to bury your loved ones. All of a sudden, with the scale of the First World War, everybody knew somebody who was killed but many had no bodies to bury."