The bronze statue of John Cabot sitting with arms crossed was made by Stephen Joyce in 1985; the statue is life size and is positioned on the cobbled street looking out at the quay.
John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was an Italian master mariner who sailed his ship the Matthew from Bristol in 1497 to discover Newfoundland, in North America.
Cabot is commonly recognised to be the first European to visit the continent since the Norse exploration of the Americas in the early eleventh century.