Plymouth: The Knife Angel, Alfie Bradley and the British Ironworks Centre

Alfie Bradley is a British sculptor who after creating a sculpture of a gorilla using spoons for Uri Geller, had an idea to create a sculpture using knives.  At the time, knife crime was dominating the headlines and Alfie wanted the sculpture to help educate and change attitudes around knife crime.  The idea for the Knife Angel was born.  He wanted the sculpture to be large so that it really impacted viewers, in more ways than one.  

At the time, Alfie worked at the British Ironworks Centre and it was the centre that helped Alfie bring his vision to life.  The centre began by creating 200 knife banks.  Amnesties were held so that knives could be safely surrendered.  Knives came from all over the country to the British Ironworks Centre where they were sorted, sterilised and then blunted with some also having the handles removed so they could be used in the wings.  Some of the knives were still in evidence packaging and contaminated with bodily fluids.  The angel required 100,000 knives but far more than this were collected and additional knives were recycled.

Some of the knives used in the wings were inscribed with messages.  Some of these are from those that had lost loved ones to knife crimes.  Others expressed horror and disbelief regarding knife crime.  Still more come from ex-offenders who now work to reduce knife crime.

Steel sheeting was used to create a frame for the sculpture and then each knife was welded to it.  The pose of the angel is very much of questioning and horror as it asks why we would do this?  The face is a mix of the faces of himself, his great grandfather, grandfather, father and two brothers.

Once the sculpture was complete it began to tour the country and has now been displayed in some 50 locations since 2018.  Periodically it returns to the British Ironworks Centre for maintenance and is on display there.  It is often displayed in front of cathedrals and I have seen many pictures of it as it has travelled the country.  These images have often been absolutely stunning and I have really wanted to see the knife angel for some time.  Living in Cornwall though, it has generally been on show a little too far away for me.

Plymouth was initially invited to host the knife angel seven years ago but turned down the opportunity.  It was felt that Plymouth didn't really have a knife crime issue and so there was little justification for the cost of bringing it there.  While Plymouth still does not have a large knife crime issue, knife crime is increasing across the country.  Even here in Cornwall, there are knife crimes now.  It is estimated that one in two thousand people carry a knife in Plymouth.  Most knife crime is related to other issues in Plymouth, such as domestic abuse, criminal exploitation or is alcohol or mental health related.  Even a single incident involving knife crime can be devastating for a community however.

The city used the presence of the knife angel to increase education around knife crime and to get people talking about it.  They offered knife amnesties as well as bystander training to train members of the public in how to safely and effectively intervene in incidents.  It was also used for other community events and to publicise help and support for the issues surrounding knife crime.  The police also held educational sessions in schools across the city.

The statue does have a direct connection to the city however.  There is a message on one of the knives from Jamie Healy, thanking Commander Anthony Lambert for saving his life.  On New Year's Day 2015, two young men who thought knives were cool, went out and attacked a group of men in a small village just outside Plymouth.  They had been trying to find someone they had been exchanging abuse with on facebook but instead started trouble elsewhere and murdered the innocent Tanis Bhandari and injured his four friends.  Commander Antony Healy, who was a surgeon at Derriford Hospital and had combat medical experience from Afghanistan as a Royal Naval Surgeon, operated on two of the friends that night.  Jamie Healy's wound went all the way through his body and had stripped muscle away from his spine, damaged his pancreas and spleen and split his left kidney.  His left kidney and spleen were removed and he was very lucky to survive.

His message reads: Thank you Commander Anthony Lambert for saving my life forget me not my near death became my new found strength Jamie Healy

Every inscription on the angel is a window into a story of heartache and loss.

A special ceremony was held when the knife angel was installed with speakers such as Becky Dunstan.  Becky Dunstan's brother, Michael Riddiough-Allen was killed in 2023 in Bodmin, Cornwall.  He was a much loved local character who had been trying to break up a fight as people were leaving a nightclub.  Jake Hill had hidden a knife in a hedge earlier and although not involved in the fight, retrieved the knife and stabbed several people.

Ah so, the knife angel packs quite a punch emotionally.  It's designed too.  It's also stunningly beautiful.  I think it is also a sort of symbol for mourning as so many of us have nothing to do with knife crime but it still impacts us indirectly.  It is a stain on our society, a sorrow.  It's beauty helps it's message spread as there are so many images online and each different venue lends something.  

Plymouth did not chose to place it in front of a church or some other fine piece of gothic architecture and the photos of the angel hit a little differently because of this.  Much of Plymouth city centre was destroyed in the Blitz and it is now a stunning memorial to post war brutalist architecture.  Much of the city centre is being redeveloped or restored, or waiting for this and shrouded in hoarding.  So the city centre is a little sad in places right now, as work is carried out.  It makes sense to place the angel in a large square in the middle of the city but the guildhall and civic centre are shrouded in hoarding and the pond with the dragonfly sculpture is drained and surrounded in fencing as work takes place.  It gave the sculpture a very different air to that of the photos I have seen of it placed in front of cathedrals.  Rawer...

I think it is important to consider that this national monument has not visited Cornwall and is unlikely to anytime soon, but there are still plenty of of people in Cornwall who will have travelled to see it in Plymouth.  Plymouth may not be in Cornwall, but it is only just over the border.  I think this importance to the area as a whole was recognised by including the family of Michael Riddiough-Allen who died in Cornwall.

If it is coming anywhere near you, go see it.  Whatever your reason.  I would absolutely visit it again somewhere else if I was able to.  I think the photos would have a different feel for sure and it would be interesting to see how place affects it.  

The only things I would like to change...  I wish it were possible to get closer to the angel.  I wanted to look more closely.  I was not possible to see any of the inscriptions.  I understand the need for safety and security.  There does not seem to be any way to look at the inscriptions online either.  James Healy's inscription featured in local news articles with a photograph but without this, the story would have been a little silent.