Heritage body fails to block Cambridge tribute to Turing
ALAN TURING’S statue is to be erected in Cambridge despite a warning from Historic England that it would “harm” the character of the area.
King’s College, the mathematician’s alma mater, applied to erect a 12ft-tall steel tribute to Turing, the wartime code-breaker, designed by Sir Anthony Gormley.
The government body said the “eyecatching” monument would “be at odds” with the traditional character of the college’s grounds, but Cambridge city council approved the plan.
Its decision goes against concerns raised by the local authority’s conservation officer, who agreed the artwork would comprise the “aesthetic significance” of King’s College, council documents state.
In favour of the artwork, described in documents as an “abstract metal figure”, it was argued a revival of interest in Turing’s work, and persecution for his homosexuality, had led to the making of films such as The Imitation Game, and that Turing was an important alumnus. Michael Proctor, the provost of King’s, said: “It was in the college’s tolerant, open-minded and intellectual environment that Turing was able to live a fulfilled life, both as a homosexual man and an abstract thinker, and we are enormously proud to acknowledge the significance of his unparalleled contribution to science and modern computing in this way.” The sculpture will be out of the view of the public on King’s Parade, and visitors will have to pay to enter the college to see it.
Historic England said it recognised the importance of the sculpture and had provided advice to the council, “setting out the impact of the proposal on this highly sensitive site and noting the public benefits of the proposal”.
Alan Turing, the computer scientist who contributed so much to the breaking of the Enigma code, suffered great misfortune in life. Though he is now celebrated enough to be the face on the reverse of the £50 (little as it may be seen in these cash-poor days), his fortune in public statuary is unhappy. A clever, dignified sculpture, made from hundreds of pieces of smoothed slate, stands indoors at Bletchley. In Manchester a bronze of Turing sitting on a bench was joined in 2021 by a hideous giant bee with his image forming its eyes. Now Historic England has objected to the siting of a 12ft sculpture of 19 steel blocks beside Gothic revival buildings in the front court of King’s College, Cambridge. It has a point. The sculpture, by Sir Antony Gormley, would be of interest in another location – though no one would guess the subject.