
Forbury Gardens · Reading
Meet the Maiwand Lion
Find the six-tonne bronze lion mourning a battle you've never heard of.
- ⏱ 15 min
- 💷 £0
- 🥾 Easy
Forbury Gardens looks like any tidy Victorian park until you round the bandstand and meet 31 feet of bronze lion, cast to remember 329 soldiers who never made it home from Afghanistan in 1880. It's one of the largest bronze animal statues in Europe, and most people walk past it on their lunch break without a second glance.
What you’ll do
- 1Get to the gardens
- 2Find the lion
- 3Prove it
Save it, send it to friends or plan your day around it. Free on the web, no download.
Photo: Andrew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0
While you're there
The Forbury
Afternoon Tea at the Forbury
Take afternoon tea at Reading's one five-star hotel, right on the gardens.

Abbey Square
Jane Austen's Classroom
Find the medieval gatehouse where a nine-year-old Jane Austen went to school.

Forbury
The Richest Abbey That Vanished
Find what's left of an abbey that was once richer than Westminster.