Vandals daub ‘black blood’ on East End’s Dogs of Alcibiades
VANDALS have struck in East London daubing black paint on the historic Dogs of Alcibiades statues.
Black blood appears to be streaming from the mouths of the statues at the Bonner Gate entrance to Victoria Park, next to the Regent’s Canal.
But they’re not the real thing—they’re replicas taken from the mouldings of the original marble statues.
The real ‘Dogs’ were taken away by Tower Hamlets council last year to be restored after decades of weather and vandalism made them look the worse for wear.
“We got the real ‘Dogs’ in storage,” said a Town Hall spokeswoman.
“We’ll put them back in the park when a new community facility is built at the other end of the park, ready for the 2012 Olympics.
“But it’s a shame the replicas have been daubed with paint, just the same.”
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The fearsome hounds are based on a classical 5th century statue by Myron and have stood in Vicky Park since it first opened in the 1840s, standing ‘guard’ by the bridge over the canal opposite Bonner Hall, named after Queen Mary I’s hatchet man ‘Bloody Bishop Bonner’.
It seems the graffiti vandals took Bloody Bonner at his word five centuries later and left their mark on the ‘Dogs’—even if they’re only the replicas.
