Outrage at plans for Marlow’s iconic statue

[*EDIT 02/04/18 – this article was originally posted on 1st April 2018 🙂 ]

Surprising plans have been announced concerning an iconic feature of Marlow – our “Pocket Venus” statue, more properly known as The Charles Frohman memorial on The Causeway.

The statue was erected in 1924 as a memorial to the theatre empresario, famed for staging the first production of Peter Pan.

Apparently though, a recent visitor to the town took offence at the fact the statue was modelled on a naked woman. 

The Council have been forced to respond due to what they called “archaic public decency laws” and take steps to remove or cover up the offending figure. The option they are currently pursuing is to paint clothing on the statue.  

A council spokesperson told us “We will hold a public consultation to decide the most appropriate outfit – current thinking is a casual modern woman in jeans and t-shirt, although a small bikini would save money on paint.  If the public take to the idea we could have seasonal specials, for example a ‘Sexy Santa'”. They have published some mock ups created by their trainee graphic designer, as can be seen above.

Reaction from residents has mostly been outrage at the suggestion, one typical comment on Facebook was “What is it with these people?! They are never happy –  painting the statue, putting bollards on the bridge, driving lorries over the bridge, putting heght restrictions on the bridge , or not – I can’t quite remember – but it made my blood boil whichever. Why don’t they just blow up the bridge and be done with it! Rant over!”

But there has been support from some:  80 year old resident Mavis Girteka took to Snapchat to say “If I stood on the Causeway waving at motorists stark naked with all my bits on show there would be uproar, and most likely cause a crash. I’m glad the council are finally seeing sense and covering up the statue in the name of decency.”   Mavis went on to add “I just hope they will next consider the Sir Steve Redgrave statue, his clothing is a bit tight in the wrong place. Seeing all that puts me right off my 99 Flake”