A PETITION by a Youtuber demanding the Bargate lions be painted black has won just one signature.

The petitioner is a history teacher and also a Youtuber with nearly 2m views and 3,000 subscribers split between two channels – Southampton On Video and Southampton On D Day.

One video - The Last Flight of a Sunderland Flying Boat at Calshot near Southampton, July 1993 - has racked up more than 600,000 views alone.

The petition says: “We the undersigned petition (Southampton City Council) to repaint the lions guarding the Bargate black in colour.

“Originally the lions were in their present life-like colours – but that was in the days when most people in England had only heard about lions.

"Today most people know what a lion looks like and they now seem incongruous.

“By painting the lions black again it would give them more gravitas in keeping with the Bargate which is one of the best preserved structures of Medieval England.

“Additionally according to Major-General Sir Nigel Holmes ‘Without Southampton we could not have done D-Day’ and the repainting could also be a fitting reminder of the soldiers who left from the port never to return.”

Daily Echo: One of the lions lost its tail back in 2018. They were previously painted black.One of the lions lost its tail back in 2018. They were previously painted black.

The 280-year-old lions are believed to represent the perhaps-mythical Sir Bevois, who is said to have founded Southampton – and where Bevois gets its name from.

The story goes that Sir Bevois slayed the lions protecting a princess he had fallen in love with in Armenia, before returning to England.

The lions were originally painted in a life-like beige, but were painted black around the year 1900.

The statues were painted beige again in 2021 after being removed to be fixed following one of their tails falling off.

The recent petition to paint them black again needs another 1,499 signatures by January 6 to make it to the city council for debate.