The three Labour Councillors for Bellingham, Councillors Alan Hall, Sue Hordijenko & Jacq Paschoud have written a letter in support of a Statue to Sir Henry Cooper to Lewisham Council.
The proposed life-sized, bronze-cast statue is to be erected in Bellingham on the corner of Randlesdown Road and the A21 Bromley Road, halfway between Catford and Downham.
Known to all as “Our ‘Enery”, Henry Cooper represented Great Britain at the 1952 Olympic Games and was the first man to win three Lonsdale belts becoming British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion. In 1963, heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper lived and trained at the The Fellowship Inn next to Bellingham station in the lead up to his first fight with Muhammad Ali at Wembley Stadium.
These achievements are represented in the statue designed by Carl Payne – a limited number of miniature replicas of the proposed statue have been sold to fundraise for the monument.
Councillor Alan Hall said: “We have been working with the London Ex-Boxers’ Association and Phoenix Community Housing since 2015 to support this. The erection of the statue will complement the restoration of the historic Fellowship Inn opposite, where Henry Cooper trained as a young man. Indeed, if Sir Henry’s statue faces in the right direction he would see it!”
Sir Henry Cooper was born in 1934 and started his amateur career in 1949. He and his identical twin brother, George, grew up in their council house in Farmstead Road on the Bellingham Estate, before they were evacuated to Lancing on the Sussex coast during the second world war.
An artist’s impression of the statue in situ
The video below shows Sir Henry Cooper returning to his Bellingham council home
The London Ex Boxers Association have submitted a planning application and architects plans and drawings are here
To buy one of the limited edition replicas of the statue and help raise funds please see the London Ex Boxers Association leaflet here
Great idea,
BUT an even better one, would be to celebrate his life and achievements, by protecting Beckenham Place Park, and it’s Public Golf course – Inner London’s ONLY Public Golf course – and it’s other Popular Public Sports Facilities, which Sir Henry Cooper enjoyed and benefited from, just like thousands of other Lewisham residents!!
He might not have achieved so much, without Beckenham Place Park and the Public Golf Course – check out Sir Henry Cooper’s Wikipedia page, and you will see this!