Gateshead Angel

The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture, designed by Antony Gormley, located in Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England.Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, tall, with wings measuring across. The wings do not stand straight sideways, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward; Gormley did this to create "a sense of embrace".It stands on the hill of Birtley, overlooking the A1 and A167 roads into Tyneside, and the East Coast Main Line rail route, south of the site of Team Colliery.ConceptAccording to Gormley, the significance of an angel was three-fold: first, to signify that beneath the site of its construction, coal miners worked for two centuries; second, to grasp the transition from an industrial to an information age, and third, to serve as a focus for our evolving hopes and fears.ConstructionWork began on the project in 1994 and cost £800,000. Most of the project funding was provided by the National Lottery. The Angel was finished on 16 February 1998.Due to its exposed location, the sculpture was built to withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Thus, foundations containing 600t of concrete anchor the sculpture to rock below. The sculpture was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd using COR-TEN weather-resistant steel. It was made in three parts—with the body weighing 100t and two wings weighing 50t each — then brought to its site by road. It took five hours for the body to be transported from its construction site in Hartlepool, up the A19 road to the site.