A monument to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was opened in London on July 14, 2011. The opening ceremony was attended by the Roscosmos delegation headed by Vladimir Popovkin, Prince Michael of Kent, and Elena Gagarina, the daughter of the Soviet cosmonaut. The monument stands in Trafalgar Square, opposite the James Cook statue, and is a precise copy of the Gagarin monument in Lyubertsy town of the Moscow Region where Gagarin went to flight school.

In the words of Vladimir Potapenko, Gagarin belongs to the entire world, and it was paramount that his monument could be shown to the British people and visitors to the capital of the U.K. The statue will stand in Trafalgar Square for a year, after which date it will be donated to one of the British art depositories.

The opening of Yuri Gagarin monument is just another one in the series of events in Great Britain and Russia known as the Year of Space, marking the 50th anniversary of the first flight to space. At the peak of his fame, in July 1961, Gagarin paid an official visit to Britain when he met the Prime Minister and the Queen.

Sources: 

RussiaToday, The Daily Mail, The Voice of Russia.