Bath's pride of lions shown off

Ali Vowles on the Bath lions

A series of life-sized lion sculptures has been unveiled in Bath ahead of a big project in 2010.

A giant pride of 100 sculptures will take up residence in and around the city from May to October.

Lions of Bath 2010 aims to raise funds for local charities while bringing a smile to residents and visitors.

It is hoped that people will decorate them in a similar vein to the King Bladud pigs that were planted across the city in 2008.

At the end of the summer, all the lions will be auctioned off for charity.

So we looked into the different options and lions are on the Bath city crest and they represented English royalty for 900 years. Organiser Megan Witty Photos of the lions

Organiser Megan Witty told BBC Bristol: "It is really to encourage local artists and local businesses to get involved and to promote the city.

"Our pride is going to be decorated by 100 different artists - we've got about 50 artists on board and we've got about 20 sponsors."

Ms Witty added that last year's project which saw similar pigs on the streets of Bath had inspired the city.

"It was such a phenomenal success we thought we couldn't really recreate that but so many people have come forward saying the city looks so empty without the pigs.

"So we looked into the different options and lions are on the Bath city crest and they represented English royalty for 900 years.

"So looking at lions brings out the royal history of Bath."

More information on the project can be found on the official Lions of Bath 2010 website.