Leicester pen sculpture project approved by city council

A sculpture celebrating Leicester’s literary heritage has been granted planning permission.

The artwork, titled The Nib, will be located next to the Writer’s Pavement feature in New Walk and aims to pay homage to writers such as Philip Larkin and Joe Orton.

Commissioned by Friends of New Walk, it is hoped it will bring attention to the pavement and “inspire a new generation of authors to begin their own journey and put pen to paper”.

Leicester City Council’s public arts department raised concerns about the “structural robustness” of the sculpture once installed, but the application was approved by the authority’s planning officers.

Documents indicate that the artwork will be formed as a cylindrical column, atop which will be a thinner metal “neck” topped with a “sharpened” nib, appearing to imitate a fountain pen.

The council’s public arts department raised concerns about the “risk of being climbable”, which would allow people to stand on it and “interfere with or dislodge (the) pointed element of the sculpture “.

“The proposal does not demonstrate how structurally robust the core structure of the feather section would be,” officials said.

“There is a risk that if this was bent or broken the two meter steel spike could be damaged or dangerously detached.”

However, council planning officials disagreed and said the basics and sharps were “considerably higher than the average person”.