The equestrian Wellington Statue, with a humorous traffic cone

Traffic cone

Traffic cones, also called traffic pylons, road cones, highway cones, safety cones, construction cones or witches' hats or safety wizards, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect traffic in a safe manner...

 on its head, on Royal Exchange Square

Royal Exchange Square

Royal Exchange Square is a public square in the City of Glasgow in Scotland. The square is situated at the junction of Queen Street with Ingram Street...

 in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland, is one of the city's most iconic images. In 2011 the Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...

 guide included the monument to the Duke of Wellington in its list of the "top 10 most bizarre monuments on Earth", along with the Rocky Balboa statue in Zitiste

Žitište

Žitište is a town and municipality in Central Banat District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 3,236, while Žitište municipality has 20,144 inhabitants.-Name:...

, Serbia and the Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral

The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...

 in the United States.

Located outside the Gallery of Modern Art and forming an end to Ingram Street the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington

Duke of Wellington

The Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington in Somerset, is a hereditary title in the senior rank of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first holder of the title was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , the noted Irish-born career British Army officer and statesman, and...

 by Italian artist Carlo Marochetti

Carlo Marochetti

Baron Carlo Marochetti was a sculptor, born in Turin but raised in Paris as a French citizen.-Life:Carlo Marochetti was born on 4 January 1805. His first teachers were François Joseph Bosio and Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris. Here his statue of A Young Girl playing with a Dog won a medal in 1829, and...

, was erected in 1844. Capping the statue with a traffic cone has become a traditional practice in the city, claimed to represent the humour of the local population and believed to date back to the first half of the 1980s if not before. The statue is a Category-A listed monument and due to minor damage and the potential for injury that the placing of cones involves, the practice has been discouraged by Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police

Strathclyde Police

Strathclyde Police is the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West...

 in recent years.

See also

• List of Category A listed buildings in Glasgow
• Public statues in Glasgow
• Wellington Monument
  Wellington Monument
  Wellington Monument may refer to any one of the monuments to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a leading British political and military figure of the 19th Century, particularly noted for his defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo....
  
  (disambiguation)