The imposing pair - both leading lights of the Industrial Revolution and the English Enlightenment - now proudly complete and stand at opposite ends of Ratcliff Passage, the new Paradise public realm between Three Chamberlain Square and the Grade I listed Town Hall. 

Once sited alongside the original Victorian era Central Library, where Three Chamberlain Square sits today, the statues were later moved to the western part of Chamberlain Square where they stood for a further 46 years before being put into safe storage when the redevelopment of Paradise began. 

Brought back to life by Market Drayton-based Midland Masonry, specialists in stonework conservation and restoration, as well as Ian Clark Restoration providing specialist metalwork conservation, both Priestley and Watt have undergone a lot of work over the past year as they’ve been prepared for their return. 

The work has been supported by the government’s Enterprise Zone funding.

Poised on their three-metre high plinths, the statues themselves stand 2.5 metres tall, giving them each combined heights of 5.5 metres.

Watt’s statue was cast in Portland stone in 1868, while Priestley’s original marble statue dates from 1874, but had deteriorated so much by 1951 he had to be re-cast in more durable bronze.

Ross Fittall, regional development director at Paradise developer and asset-manager MEPC, the specialist development arm of Federated Hermes, said: “With the return of these important artifacts of our shared history, we remember two important individuals who helped to shape not just the world around us, but also the city’s and the country’s history and Birmingham’s vital place within it.”

Jane Thompson Webb, conservation manager at Birmingham Museums Trust, custodians of the statues on behalf of the city, said: “The return of these vital figures to an accessible location in the very heart of the city will allow everyone to be able to enjoy them and underlines our pride in both Watt and Priestley’s achievements which influenced the world around us today.

“So many of the advantages society now enjoys are due in part to the vital role of engineering solutions and the brilliance and foresight of people like Priestley and Watt whose advances in science and industry gave an incredible boost to the world economy at a key moment in history.”