''Eleanor Rigby'' is a statue in Stanley Street, Liverpool, England, designed and made by the entertainer

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recor ...

. It is based on the subject of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' 1966 song "

Eleanor Rigby "Eleanor Rigby" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album ''Revolver''. It was also issued on a double A-side single, paired with " Yellow Submarine". Credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the s ...

", which is credited to the

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collabo ...

partnership.

History

When Tommy Steele was performing in a show in Liverpool in 1981, he made an offer to

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Liverpool has had a local authority since 1207, which has been reformed on numerous ...

to create a sculpture as a tribute to the Beatles. His fee for the commission would be three pence (half a sixpence). The offer was accepted by the council, as the statue would be expected to increase the tourist trade of the city, and they made a donation of £4,000 towards its cost. The project was otherwise funded by the ''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...

''. The statue took nine months to make. Steele unveiled it in Liverpool on 3 December 1982.

Description

The statue consists of a bronze figure on a stone bench. The figure is tall, wide, and deep. It depicts a seated woman with a handbag on her lap, a shopping bag on her right, and a copy of the ''Liverpool Echo'' on her left. Poking from the shopping bag is a milk bottle, and on the newspaper is a sparrow and a piece of bread. The woman is looking down at the sparrow. Steele included what he described as "magical properties" in his design, all hidden inside the bronze figure and representing a different facet of life. These were: a

four-leaf clover The four-leaf clover is a rare mutation of the common three-leaf clover that has four Leaflet (botany), leaflets instead of three. According to traditional sayings, such clovers bring good luck, a belief that dates back to at least the 17th cent ...

(for good luck), a page from

the Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writte ...

(for spiritual guidance),

football boot Football boots, also referred to as cleats or soccer shoes in North America, are specialized footwear designed for use in association football. Those designed for grass Association football pitch, pitches have cleat (shoe), studs on the outsole ...

s (representing sport and fun), a comic book (for comedy and adventure), and a

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

(for love). On the wall behind the figure is an inscribed plaque which originally read: This inscription has since been replaced. File:Eleanor Rigby plaque.jpg, The plaque as it appears in 2018 File:Eleanor Rigby face.jpg, Close-up of Eleanor's face File:Eleanor Rigby sparrow.jpg, Close-up of the sparrow at which Eleanor is looking

Notes and references

Notes Citations {{The Beatles, state=collapsed Outdoor sculptures in Liverpool Monuments and memorials to the Beatles Statues of women in England Bronze sculptures in England Monuments and memorials in Liverpool Statues of fictional characters Musical sculptures Sculptures of birds in the United Kingdom