Statue Of James Watt

SE2933SE 714-1/77/105 26/09/63

LEEDS

CITY SQUARE Statue of James Watt

(Formerly Listed as: CITY SQUARE Statues of Joseph Priestley, Dean Hook, John Harrison and James Watt)

GV II

Statue of James Watt. 1898. By HC Fehr. Polished granite plinth with bronze plaque and raised lettering: 'JAMES/ WATT/ 1736-1819'. Life-size bronze statue on a square base with raised lettering: 'THE GIFT OF/ RICHARD WAINWRIGHT 1898/ ERECTED 1903'. On the rear of the base: 'J W SINGER & SONS LTD FOUNDERS'. One of 4 statues of prominent men in Leeds' history, part of the City Square design by William Bakewell for Walter Harding, completed 1903. HISTORICAL NOTE: the firm of Boulton and Watt supplied machines to some of the first steam-powered mills in the town at the end of the C18; historians of the town's industrial development have since suggested however that a statue of the local engineer, Matthew Murray, whose Round Foundry Complex, Foundry Street pioneered the steam engine, would have been more appropriate. (Scott, E Kilburn: Matthew Murray, Pioneer Engineer: Leeds: 1928-).

Listing NGR: SE2986533449