Southampton's Bargate lions return to the city

Now, Southampton's Bargate lions will be back on their plinths with a facelift following restoration to how they looked in 1743.

For many years the lions have been a dull black, but detailed forensic work has revealed that the original colour scheme was much more life-like.

Conservator Rupert Harris, in whose workshop the conservation was done, said ‘it was the fashion in the mid-18th century to paint statues as if they were alive, and the Bargate lions were no exception.

Extract from The Southampton Bargate, a lithograph by George Prosser

After they had been made by sculptor John Cheere they had buff-coloured bodies, dark pink mouths and tongues, off-white teeth, and black claws. The metal flag poles they carried were painted dark brown to look like wood’.

Research in the City Archives by Monuments and Memorials Officer, Jo Bailey, revealed that the lions had been painted, repaired and cleaned a number of times over the centuries.

She said: "As the years passed, the lions were painted in darker colours. In the late 19th century they were painted dark green, and finally were painted black around 1900."