The Sneinton Dragon

Image: © John Sutton Taken: 8 Sep 2010

This sculpture, at the corner of Manvers Street and Sneinton Hermitage, was unveiled on 21 November 2006. It is the work of a local craftsman, Robert Stubley. The people of Sneinton were asked by the Renewal Trust what they would like to see as a piece of public art to represent their area, and the dragon was the result. According to the Edwardian historian of the Nottingham suburbs Robert Mellors, a monster lived in certain parts of the city, "who has devoured in the first year of their lives a large number of infants, and, what is worse, probably an equal number who have survived have dragged out a pitiable existence in weakness, small in stature, deformed, or anaemic, with diseases, lack of energy, unable to maintain themselves, and therefore dependent on others or the public charge; and, worse still, some have had a natural tendency to vice or crime. Who is this monster, and what is his name? His name is SLUM."

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