Gaw's post last weekend set me thinking about some of the more bizarre statues I have seen in my time, in his comments section we even discussed the very sad and moving Postman's Park, (as featured in the film 'Closer') - a small garden in London containing plaques honouring people who died saving the lives of others. I used to work in the soulless japanese bank next door and must say I felt priviledged to eat my lunch there on warm dappled summer days.

The most depressing statue I think I've ever seen though has to be the statue of Pocahontas, located in Gravesend, in the blighted part of Kent. If you've never been to Gravesend it's actually not a bad place, and whilst it is rough around the edges, it does have some nice old buildings, the benefit of loads of interesting history, and the fascinating, ever changing Thames backdrop - a vista of enormous cargo ships that loom past, seeming almost close enough to touch.

Squirreled away in the town park is the statue of Pocahontas, a person who i'm pretty sure most people regard as a fictional Disney character. But she was real, she was an indian princess who lived a life of adventure, but who ended up dying of disease on a ship in Gravesend, just before she was about to embark on her journey back to America. The poignancy lies in the mundanity of her death so far from her home - finding her statue (as I did by chance on passing through the town one day) was like finding out that Princess Diana is buried in the foyer of a Little Chef in Hatfield.