First photos emerge of Harry Kane statue kept in storage for years

Images obtained by the Big Issue of the Harry Kane statue that has sat dormant for years. Photograph: Waltham Forest council/Sculpture Machine Ltd/Big Issue

The first photographs of the dormant sculpture of the Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane have been published, five years after it was commissioned. The statue has sat in storage because Waltham Forest council in east London has been unable to find a suitable location for it.

The sculpture of the Walthamstow-born, Chingford-raised record goalscorer for Tottenham and England was completed in 2020 at a cost of £7,200, but has yet to appear in public.

Under the headline “Waste of money or fitting tribute?”, the Big Issue magazine has published a series of pictures of the statue, which depicts Kane sitting on a bench in a football kit while holding a ball in place on his knee with his hand.

Attempts were made by local Conservative councillors to place the statue on Chingford’s Overground railway station, but after a risk assessment carried out by Transport for London, that proposal was denied on the grounds that it could be targeted by rival football fans.

A further possible placing, in Ridgeway Park – Kane is an alumnus of the local youth team Ridgeway Rovers – was also rejected.

Emma Best, the leader of Waltham Forest Conservatives, said “hours and hours” had been spent trying to find a place to honour the forward.

A spokesperson for Kane, 30, has said they were “really excited” about the statue and that they hoped that a location could be found in the coming months.

The spokesperson told the BBC: “It is what he deserves. The location of the statue is really important to us, and like Emma said, we are having some issues at the moment, but when we get it right we will be happy to go.”

Kane attended Larkswood academy in Chingford and then Chingford foundation school, where David Beckham was also educated.

The statue was paid for from a fund allocated to “local initiatives, projects or improvements” that councillors in each of the borough’s 22 wards share out.

According to the Big Issue, the images of the Kane statue were supplied to Waltham Forest council by the Rugby-based firm Sculpture Machine.