The statue of Edmund Burke in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England, is a commemorative bronze sculpture of

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

(1729–1797) standing in The Centre. It was created in 1894 by James Havard Thomas and is

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. A second copy of the sculpture stands on Massachusetts Avenue in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, United States. It has been said incorrectly that the statue is a copy of an 1858 marble work in the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

; that marble statue is by William Theed, the younger. The

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

statue stands on a red

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

plinth with the inscription "BURKE / 1774–1780 / I wish to be an MP to have my share of doing good and resisting evil / Speech at Bristol 1780". Burke was a Member of Parliament for

from 1774 to 1780. The National Heritage List for England record for the

statue of Edward Colston A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size. A sculpture ...

, which until June 2020 stood nearby, gives as one of its reasons for listing the "group value with other Bristol memorials: a statue of Edmund Burke, the Cenotaph, and a drinking fountain commemorating the Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition of 1893", referring to this statue, the Bristol Cenotaph and the 1893 Exhibition fountain.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , website=About Bristol , url=https://www.about-bristol.co.uk/sta-01.asp , title=Statues and Sculptures: 19th Century Traditional , accessdate=10 June 2020 {{NHLE, num=1282140, desc=Statue of Edmund Burke, accessdate=10 June 2020 {{NHLE, num=1202137, desc=Statue of Edward Colston, accessdate=10 June 2020 {{cite web , title=Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Statesman; orator; author , url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/personExtended/mp00648/edmund-burke?tab=iconography , website=National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue , accessdate=10 June 2020 {{cite web , title=Edmund Burke, (sculpture) , url=https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!323785~!0#focus , website=Art Inventories Catalog , publisher=Smithsonian Museum , accessdate=11 June 2020 ''Describes the Washington copy but has useful description of the work'' 1895 establishments in England 1895 sculptures Bronze sculptures in England Edmund Burke Burke, Edward Grade II listed buildings in Bristol Outdoor sculptures in Bristol Burke, Edmund Burke, Edmund