CITY LANDMARK RETURNS IN MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
After an absence of four years, Forsyth’s Finial returned to the Edinburgh skyline in the small hours of this morning.
The operation involved around 30 personnel, at least six HGVs, the shutting-down of tram power cables, and the closure of Princes Street from the Apple Store to Waverley Bridge between 11.30pm and up to 4.30am.
Gilbert Bayes’s 1907 decorative sculpture began the evening in two parts on the back of a long loader.
At 12.20am, with Princes Street still busy with pedestrians, there sounded an ominous buzzer as the crane began to edge upright and unfold like a huge praying mantis.
Five minutes later, sparks started flying from the scaffold-shrouded summit of Topshop.
By 12.31am, the crane’s transformation was complete. More sparks flew from the rooftop.
At 12.30am, the crane’s spotlights switched on and a hook descended towards a 9-strong team beside the lorry-mounted components.
At 12.45am, a ‘disorientated’ Irish football fan approached Spurtle and asked for the way to Princes Street. We told him. He next asked for the way to everywhere else in Edinburgh before wandering off with the cheery assurance, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find it.’
At 12.48am, the cherubs were lifted from the lorry and set down again with painstaking solicitude on the road surface. A couple of homeless people wrapped in blankets briefly surveyed the scene, then headed into the darkness above Princes Mall.
Next, at 12.55am, the orb was lifted from the lorry and joined with the cherubs.
At 1.30am, the newly unified halves were airborne, and for 12 minutes swung gently from side to side in the breeze, twistiing this way and that. Everyone gave them a wide berth.
At 1.42am, with surprising speed and decisiveness, the sculpture was lifted up, up and over the rooftop.
Five minutes later it was in position.
Spurtle understands that some 38 bolts had then to be secured, with the whole installation scheduled for completion within another 1.5 hours.
So far as we could judge, the operation – managed by Sharkey – was a flawless exercise in measured calm and control. There were no obvious alarms, no hurried movements, no causes for concern.
And the Edinburgh landmark, newly restored, smooth, highly polished, reflecting the city lights and the wheeling forms of silent gulls, looked stunning. As soon as we can get a clear, daylit, scaffolding-free image of the sculpture in situ, we'll publish it. Watch this space.
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Eleane Tweedly Lovely to see it back where it belongs!