There will be no question of this statue going unnoticed. Standing twice as tall as the Angel of the North, it will be visible for miles across the surrounding landscape.
It is also fitting that a monument celebrating the greatest name in British aviation should be placed where its story began – in the air.
Southampton can hardly be accused of hurrying its plans for a national Spitfire monument. Next year will mark two decades since a determined group of south coast volunteers first came together to launch the project – at a proposed height of 131ft.
But, with public support, this magnificent landmark may finally be close to becoming a reality.
Should the local authority grant the final permissions and building licence at next month’s council meeting, the project could finally move ahead.
After such a long wait, it is safe to say the result will be worth it.
Just as Gateshead has its winged guardian overlooking the A1 and the London-to-Edinburgh railway, Southampton could soon have its own towering symbol – one that will doubtless be known as the Saviour of the South.
In fact, the scale goes beyond simply doubling the Angel of the North. Standing only 20ft shorter than the Statue of Liberty, the National Spitfire Monument is set to become the world’s largest stainless steel structure.
An artist’s impression shows how Southampton’s National Spitfire Monument could look. It will stand twice as tall as the Angel of the North.
Robert Hardman and Royston Smith at the proposed site for the National Spitfire Monument in Mayflower Park, Southampton.
The campaign began in 2007, when local figures established the original ‘Spitfire tribute panel’ to create the first proper national monument to Reginald Mitchell’s celebrated invention. Southampton was the natural choice.
Mitchell was born near Stoke-on-Trent, but it was as chief designer at Southampton-based Supermarine that he made his name. His seaplanes won Britain the Schneider Trophy – the aviation equivalent of the World Cup in its day – three times consecutively.
Southampton was also where Mitchell assembled the team that would design the Spitfire. He watched its first flight in March 1936 while suffering from the bowel cancer that would claim his life the following year. At Supermarine’s Woolston factory, workers laboured around the clock to build the highly agile fighter, distinguished by its elegant elliptical wing.
More than 100 of those workers were killed in 1940, when Luftwaffe bomber fleets targeted the factory producing Britain’s formidable new weapon of war.
The workforce refused to be beaten. Production was dispersed across the region, with Spitfires being built in garages, bus depots and even laundries, while additional aircraft were manufactured in ‘shadow’ factories such as Castle Bromwich in Birmingham.
Their efforts, combined with the courage of the young pilots who flew the aircraft, made a major contribution to the Allies’ eventual victory. Britain had fewer than 400 operational Spitfires at the beginning of the war; by its end, more than 12,000 had entered service, although thousands never came home.
Its exceptional performance and adaptability – from night fighting and photo reconnaissance to the naval Seafire variant – meant the Spitfire was the only fighter to remain in continuous production before, during and after the war, from the Mk 1 through to the Mk 24.
Other aircraft were vital to victory, including the Lancaster bomber and the Spitfire’s stablemate, the Hurricane. The Hurricane carried much of the burden for ‘the Few’ during the Battle of Britain, when Spitfire production was still catching up and Britain faced the threat of invasion.
Even so, no other warplane has inspired the same blend of ingenuity, elegance, bravery and glamour. More than 100 Spitfires remain airworthy and continue to fly around the world. ‘It is the most iconic aeroplane ever created,’ says aviation historian Paul Beaver, a trustee of the project. ‘It encapsulates a spirit of resistance and engineering prowess which has never been superseded.’ The Spitfire was Winston Churchill with wings.
Group Captain John Hemingway DFC, the last surviving member of ‘the Few’, praised the Spitfire in an interview with Our News Outlet shortly before his death last year.
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For all these reasons and more, a national monument is long overdue. And we are now tantalisingly close to seeing it move from the drawing board to the water’s edge here at Mayflower Park overlooking Southampton Water. It’s the perfect spot.
To the right is the mighty cruise ship terminal which brings three million in and out every year. To the left is The Solent and the ferry terminals for the Isle of Wight. A further one million people will see the thing each year as they fly in and out of Southampton Airport, where the Spitfire was born.
A huge circular base, modelled on an RAF roundel, will jut out from the sea wall.
High overhead will be Nick Hancock’s gleaming stainless steel model of a Spitfire, one and a half times the size of the real thing, supported by a vast curving stainless steel vapour trail.
What is urgently needed now is the green light from the council after years of bureaucratic foot-dragging. The memorial is still waiting for councillors to approve long-needed repairs to the revetment (sea wall), even though the monument will save the council £1 million by paying for the stretch of the wall where the base will go.
All now finally appears to have been resolved, though the years of delay mean that inflation has cranked up the construction costs. The trustees of the National Spitfire Project now need a further £1.5 million as a result, so we must all play our part.
The computer images certainly look awesome, though they also beg the question: will this thing not blow over in a storm? ‘Don’t worry. We’ve put it through everything,’ says Royston Smith, vice-chairman of the trustees, pointing out that the monument has been subjected to the same checks by the Canadian wind-testing laboratory which approved Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
The Spitfire monument will be tall – but not that tall.
Mr Smith is a former leader of Southampton City Council who went on to spend nine years as Tory MP for Southampton Itchen.
During that time he secured a Commons debate on the need for the memorial and persuaded the (Southampton-born) Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to provide £3 million of funding to match £3 million from local companies, foundations and well-wishers.
A former RAF flight engineer (with a George Medal for disarming a gunman during a fatal shooting), Mr Smith believes that the monument will not only raise the profile of the city. More importantly, it will help to remind future generations of the sacrifices of the wartime generation.
‘The boys who flew those Spitfire were so young, some of them just 18. And they did it day after day, just like the people of Southampton who kept on producing those aircraft.’
The monument will also honour the 30 nationalities who flew the Spitfire, from Poles and Indians to Arthur Weeks from Barbados and ‘Spitfire Paddy’ Finucane, the Irishman who became the RAF’s youngest Wing Commander at just 21 (and a triple winner of the DFC). The last surviving member of ‘the Few’, Group Captain John Hemingway DFC, was also Irish. He was singing the praises of the Spitfire in an interview with Our News Outlet shortly before his death last year.
This project has the support of the vast majority of a city which is immensely proud of its Spitfire heritage. Roads are named after both the plane and RJ Mitchell.
Eastleigh FC, ‘the Spitfires’, play next door to what was RAF Eastleigh – scene of that maiden flight – until it became Southampton Airport. There the main approach is surmounted by a three-quarter size Spitfire above a roundabout.
Rather delightfully, this is sponsored by the adjacent car dealership – Mercedes-Benz – who just happened to make the engines for its arch-rival the Messerschmitt Me-109. This weekend, the city is even opening a new indoor laser-tag complex called Battle of Britain Dodgems.
At a time when young people think it acceptable to desecrate London’s Battle of Britain Memorial – as pro-Palestinian yobs did last weekend – it seems all the more important to remind future generations that such freedom can never be taken for granted.
That’s why Southampton City Council can dither no longer while the rest of us give what we can – and prepare for take-off.
To donate: justgiving.com/charity/nationalspitfireproject
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