The Yuri Gagarin Statue is a zinc statue depicting the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....

 standing on top of a globe wearing a spacesuit. The figure was unveiled on July 14, 2011 and rests in the Mall in London, close to Admiralty Arch

Admiralty Arch

Admiralty Arch is a large office building in London which incorporates an archway providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the South-West, and Trafalgar Square to the North-East. It was designed by Sir Aston Webb, constructed by John Mowlem & Co and completed in 1912...

 and facing opposite of the Statue of Captain Cook.

The 3.5m high statue is a replica of an original in Lyubertsy

Lyubertsy

Lyubertsy is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: Lyubertsy was founded in 1623, and it became a city in 1925.-Notable people:*Sergei Abeltsev, LDPR politician...

, where Gagarin was trained as a foundry worker. The statue was a gift to the British Council

British Council

The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...

 from the Russian space agency Roscosmos as a part of several cultural events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight

Vostok 1

Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer...

. The location of the statue was chosen to be where Gagarin first met then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan

Harold Macmillan

Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....

.

The statue's location in the Mall is currently temporary, and it will eventually need to be moved. There is a proposal to move it to Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

.