Bully for Laurence! Artist’s statue is in country’s top 10

Artist Laurence Broderick, who lives in Waresley, is the man behind the giant bull statue outside the Bullring in Birmingham.

And the Independent newspaper listed it as number eight in it’s top 10 list, alongside such iconic works as Michelangelo’s David, the Statue of Liberty and the lions in Trafalgar Square.

Laurence said: “My son found the list on the internet –I just didn’t know anything about it!

“I’m overwhelmed, I can’t believe it.

“We’ve also discovered it’s become the third most photographed icon in Britain after the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.”

Laurence was one of four artists asked to compete for the honour of designing a statue for the redeveloped Bullring back in 2010.

He decided to make his sculpture twice life sized as he thought the other artists would go for a one-and-a-half life sized model.

Laurence, who is well known for his sculptures of other animals, particularly otters, said: “We had a £100,000 prize, but out of that we had to make the sculpture and put it on site.

“The sculpture took nearly two years to make and it cost so much money there was none of the prize left!

“ My son said ‘don’t worry dad, just enjoy the glory of it all’. At that time they said the bull would become extremely famous – and sure enough, it did.”

In fact the statue – which is called The Guardian – has become so popular that when Laurence and his family took a trip to Birmingham to get a photograph with it, they had to wait in line.

Laurence said: “My son said we should take a picture to use as a Christmas card. We had to wait about 15 minutes before we could get close to it because it was so busy.”

The Bullring reopened in 2003, when the statue was unveiled.

Laurence said: “There were around 270,000 people there. They were on the roofs and everywhere.

“It was the most amazing thing, I will never forget it.”

To find out more about Laurence and his work, visit www.laurencebroderick.co.uk/