There are many memorials on the quayside at Liverpool's Albert Docks, mostly, as is only fitting, memorial plaques to the dead of both world wars who perished at sea serving the Allied cause. There are also statues, some of them commemorating notable Liverpudlians, and the worst of them is surely that depicting the four Beatles. From a distance you'd be hard put to recognise them, and close up it doesn't get much better. Lifeless, lumpish and ugly, this piece of public sculpture, like so many others, illustrates the sad decline of the art (see, for example, the Diana statue in Kensington Gardens, the giant Lovers at St Pancras station, or this horror). Nor does it express anything at all about the Beatles: this sad and vacant looking foursome could be anyone.
On the other hand, one dockside statue that did impress me was 'Waiting', a monument to the Liverpool working horse, by the equine sculptor Judy Boyt. Liverpool once had more working horses on its streets than any city but London, and their role in carrying goods from the docks to warehouses and railway depots helped to keep supply lines open during both world wars. 'Waiting' is wonderfully lifelike and has real presence and character. The humble working horse has ended up with a far more impressive monument than the Fab Four. And why not?
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