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London School of Economics Old Building, Clare Market WC2 30 Jul 2016 8:27 AM (8 years ago)

The Clare Market facade of the LSE's old library was added in 1932 by the architect A.S.G. Butler, best known these days as the author of many books on Lutyen's works. It is decorated by sculpted panels by Edgar Silver Frith, a member of a sculptural dynasty and lecturer at the South London Technical School of Art.
Apparently they represent different modes of thinking, from which we can conclude;
a) Thought hurts;
b) Thought is done exclusively by men.

The Thinking Men are currently obscured by construction so these pictures are provisional.

30 Russell Square WC1 30 Jul 2016 7:16 AM (8 years ago)

Joseph Priestley sits over the main entrance of Birkbeck College, his head resting in his left hand, examining a huge scroll that drops over this lap down to the floor. Is he boning up on the latest developments in chemistry? or electricity? or theology? or English grammar? Perhaps he is studying one of languages he spoke, including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German, Arabic and Aramaic? He was a true Renaissance man.
The statue was carved by Gilbert Bayes in 1914 when the building was erected for the Royal Institute of Chemistry, to designs by Sir John Burnet. Priestley is today remembered most for his part in the discovery of oxygen, though he called it 'dephlogisticated air.' reflecting his unyielding attachment to the phlogiston theory that was being debunked at the time by his arch-rival Lavoisier.

Cook Memorial, The Mall SW1 17 May 2016 8:40 AM (8 years ago)

Royal Marines Memorial, The Mall, SW1 6 May 2016 3:10 AM (8 years ago)

Though a victory, the Battle of Graspan was not exactly a glittering example of British military prowess. General Lord Methuen completely failed to understand the threat posed by long range rifle fire, enabling the undisciplined but hotshot Afrikaaner farmers to create havoc from their hilltop positions.
In 1900 a millennial cult of unspeakable ferocity, violently zenophobic and anti-Christian, called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists but better known today by the name given them by Western diplomats, the Boxers, attacked Peking and laid siege to the quarter that housed the foreign embassies. 

32 Saffron Hill EC1 17 Apr 2016 11:18 AM (9 years ago)

L.&.Co were Longmans, the publishers of dictionaries and other good works - the founder, Thomas Longman, inherited a share in Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia and was one of the booksellers responsible for marketing Samuel Johnson's Dictionary.
Longman started in 1726 in a shop in Paternoster Row under the sign of the Ship, later expanding into premises next door under the sign of the Black Swan. Both symbols were used by his company thereafter.In the nineteenth century Longmans started producing lavishly bound editions which proved so popular the bindery in Paternoster Row was unable to keep up, so in 1887 this works was built to expand production, apparently causing something of a stir in the book trade. 

The Anchorage, Clare Market WC2 19 Mar 2016 11:00 AM (9 years ago)

The Anchorage was the parsonage of St Clement Danes church in the Strand, so the wall is embellished with an anchor, the symbol of St Clement, an early Pope. He was tied to one and thrown into the sea on the orders of the Emperor Trajan.
The building dates from about 1800 but was not occupied by the rector until later so the anchor probably dates from the second half of the 19th century.
But it won't be there much longer - the building is being demolished to make way for the LSE's enormous new tower designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour.

Lincolns Inn Fields WC2 17 Mar 2016 4:23 AM (9 years ago)

Margaret MacDonald was a feminist who worked tirelessly for the rights of women at work, becoming a member of the Women's Industrial Council in 1894, where she conducted an enquiry into women's home work (a notoriously exploitative system) and championing training of women for skilled work. She set up the first trade schools for girls in 1904.
But, as ever, the main reason she is commemorated by this impressive seat in one of London's premier squares is that she was married to a famous and powerful man, viz Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour prime minister.
She married MacDonald in 1896. By all accounts it was a happy union, resulting in six children, and MacDonald was devastated when she suddenly died in 1911 from blood poisoning - she was only 41.
Legend has it that Ramsay MacDonald designed her monument himself, for execution by the sculptor Richard Goulden, completed in 1914. It seems more likely that MacDonald gave Goulden a detailed brief rather than an actual design. It is a touching tribute to a wife and mother - make sure you read the bronze plate on the back of the stone seat.

Lincolns Inn Fields WC2 27 Feb 2016 2:14 AM (9 years ago)

John Hunter was 'the founder of scientific surgery', according to the brass plaque on the side of his bust located close to the museum that bears his name.
The lively bronze was sculpted by Nigel Boonham in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee (Her Madge is Visitor and Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, where the Hunterian museum is housed.)
Hunter's vast collection of bits of human stuff was the result of a lifetime of investigation - he famously said "Why think, why not try the experiment?" This dedication to the scientific method didn't mean he was right all the time, however. He thought syphilis and gonorrhea were the same disease and advocated mercury for both. Such was his reputation this was unquestioningly accepted and the truth was not discovered for over 50 years.

St Clements Building, Clare Market WC2 5 Feb 2016 8:59 AM (9 years ago)

It's hard to believe, but this anodyne mosaic provoked a furious reaction when it was unveiled, with calls from both extremes of the political spectrum for its removal.

The Young Lovers, Festival Gardens EC4 3 Feb 2016 9:40 AM (9 years ago)

The Young Lovers is a piece by Austrian-born artist Georg Ehrlich. It was created in 1951 for the second open air sculpture exhibition in Battersea Park, held at the same time as the Festival of Britain.
Festival Gardens were the City of London's contribution to the nationwide jamboree, also intended as a war memorial. They were laid out by Sir Albert Richardson, who designed a fountain with bronze lion's head spouts but no other sculpture.
However, in 1969 money for public sculpture became available at just the moment when The Young Lovers came on the market. Ehrlich himself had died in 1966, So now this elegant, optimistic, idealistic couple, clothed in just the right amount of tulle to avoid public comment, canoodle gently on the sunny side of the cathedral.
Ehrlich, a Jew, was a leading exponent of Viennese expressionism. When the Nazis moved in he was in London and wisely stayed, getting his wife to follow him with as many of his works as she could bring. They became naturalised Britons after the war.

St Paul's Churchyard EC4 1 Feb 2016 7:22 AM (9 years ago)

John Donne is commemorated by two statues in St Paul's, the famous image within the cathedral of his corpse in a winding sheet by Nicholas Stone, and now this one in the churchyard. It is by Nigel Boonham, cast in bronze in 2012.
The poet and churchman is shown facing west but looking south towards his birthplace close by in Bread Street. For Donne, east was the direction of the rising sun, Jerusalem and hope, while west was the way of decline and death, and beneath the bust is inscribed a line from Good Friday 1613, Riding Westward:

Hence is't, that I am carried towards the West,
This day, when my Soul's form bends to the East

193 Fleet Street EC4 18 Jan 2016 9:14 AM (9 years ago)

George Attenborough and Son is one of the very few premises in London still bearing the name of the business that built it. It was erected in 1883 to the designs of Archer and Green, and is covered with sculpture by Houghton of Great Portland Street.
The main event, however, is the statue of Kaled, or Lara's Page, It is by Giuseppe Grandi, dating from 1872. Attenborough had a niche created specially for it over the front door of his shop.
Kaled is the page of Count Lara in Bryon's poetic story of a nobleman who returns to his ancestral lands to restore justice. He antagonises the neighbouring chieftains who attack and kill him. Kaled stays with his master to the end, when it is revealed he is in fact a woman. She goes mad.
The centre of the curved facade is marked with a couple of rather jolly winged lions holding a wrought iron structure that originally supported the three golden balls denoting Attenborough's other business as a pawnbroker. The motto beneath is the pawnbrokers' motto 'Sub Hoc [signo] floresco' - 'Under this sign I flourish'.
The windows below the lions are embellished with typically Victorian allegorical ladies representing the Arts and Trades, including painting, literature, spinning and beekeeping. One of them holds a caduceus in one hand and a cornucopia in the other, which mixes the messages rather.
The Chancery Lane windows have roundels depicting heroes of art from Michelangelo to Flaxman.
And for typografans, the lintels of the second storey windows have a florid decorated initial:

Temple Bar Memorial, Fleet Street EC4 23 Dec 2015 11:26 AM (9 years ago)

The authority of the City of London extended beyond the old walls at many places, known as the Liberties. The entrances to the Liberties were controlled by guard points originally just a bar resting on two posts.
Gradually they became more elaborate and gained other functions such as the display of the heads of traitors and other malefactors.
The grandest bar of all was the one on the ceremonial route between the Palace of Westminster and St Pauls, which was regularly used by the monarch on national events. It became known as Temple Bar after the Templar's round church close by.
In 1670 a new bar was built in stone as part of the reconstruction programme after the Great Fire. In Victorian times however it was seen as gloomy reminder of times gone by and an obstruction to traffic. It was after much soul-searching removed stone by stone and ended up in the park of a grand house in Hertfordshire. In 2004 it was re-erected near to St Pauls.
Many felt the bar should not be replaced at all, especially as the road is particularly narrow at that point. Many proposals were made including one by George Street, who was designing the Royal Courts of Justice to the north of the site, who envisaged a gothic style bridge for judges to cross from the Temple. Other ideas included raising the old Temple Bar on a new arch, and making a traffic circus round it. The refusal of Child's Bank on the other side of the road to release land scuppered all these plans.
The design was eventually given to Horace Jones, architect of Tower Bridge, who created a slender column intended to allow traffic to flow more freely.
There is something about public sculpture that provokes Times letter writers to apoplexy, and this project was the subject of a particularly entertaining row. Everything from the continued traffic obstruction, lax organisation, shenanigans on the committee and, of course, the cost were gleefully attacked.
Particular vilification was directed at the figure on top, London's symbolic dragon as modeled by Charles Birch. For some reason many correspondents seem to think it is a griffin which of course it is not (a griffin has the body of a lion with the head and wings of an eagle: a dragon is a winged serpent.) It was booed by the crowd when the memorial was unveiled in 1880.
In today's eyes, however, the memorial is a typical piece of fussy, sentimental and overblown Victoriana.

Lamb Memorial, Giltspur Street EC1 20 Dec 2015 7:46 AM (9 years ago)

Charles Lamb, the man who was Elia, went to school at Christ's Hospital when it was still housed in the old Greyfriars monastery in Newgate Street. He is portrayed in this memorial by Sir William Reynolds-Stephens in school uniform. Sir William also designed the aedicule in his typical magpie 'bit of this, bit of that' style.

SOE Memorial, Lambeth Palace Road SE1 11 Dec 2015 2:28 AM (9 years ago)

The memorial to the Special Operations Executive is topped by a bust of the woman who epitomises the bravery, skill and suffering of the agents tasked to 'set Europe ablaze'. Most of them were tortured and executed.

Kagyu Samye Dzong London, Spa Road SE16 6 Dec 2015 6:54 AM (9 years ago)

Mile End Waste, Mile End Road E1 4 Dec 2015 2:19 AM (9 years ago)

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, began his mission as an independent preacher in 1865 on a rough area of common land known as Mile End Wastes, where he set up a tent and preached a gospel of forgiveness for all.
Today, Booth is commemorated by two statues in locality, but it is easy to forget that at the time he was only one of many - about 500 charities were working to alleviate poverty and eradicate sin in the East End. It was Booth's dynamism and his brilliant realisation that military ideas of esprit de corps could be adapted for God's purposes that set him apart.
The bronze bust, erected in 1927 opposite the Blind Beggar where he famously preached, shows Booth in full fig as General, complete with gold braid, epaulettes and insignia of office. It is by George Edward Wade and was cast at the Morris Art Bronze Foundry.
Wade, the son of a clergyman, was a self-taught sculptor who rejected experiment and just went for a good likeness. As a gentleman and a reliable pair of hands, he built up a lucrative practice immortalising the upper classes from Queen Victoria and Earl Haig down.
The Morris Art Foundry, one of the ancestors of today's Morris Singer Bronze Foundry, was founded in Lambeth by William Morris in 1921. No, not that William Morris, though apparently our Bill made no strenuous efforts to dispel the assumption that the firm had connections to the great designer, writer and socialist.

Millbank SW1 2 Dec 2015 2:31 AM (9 years ago)

Enzo Plazzotta based his statue Jete on David Wall, famous as creator of the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling, the youngest ever Siegfried in Swan Lake and as frequent partner to Margot Fonteyn. He was also the youngest ever Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet.
The statue was created in 1975 when Wall was only 29 and is a typical subject for Plazzotta, who also created images of Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina, and Antony Dowell.
Plazzotta was born near Venice and studied in Milan until the outbreak of war, when he became a partisan leader around Lake Maggiore. When peace came, he was commissioned by the Italian Committee of Liberation to make a pair of statuettes for presentation to the British Special Forces to commemorate their successful partnership. He came to London to present them personally, liked the place and stayed.
His commitment to classicism brought him derision from the modernist art establishment in the swinging sixties, naturally, especially his fascination with freezing fast moving subjects in bronze. He had the last laugh, however, discovering a lucrative market modelling racehorses for rich owners.

Pimlico Garden and Shrubbery, SW1 1 Dec 2015 11:28 AM (9 years ago)

Moreton Street SW1 29 Nov 2015 9:20 AM (9 years ago)

Andre Wallace's Girl on Roller Skates whizzes along a bench in a short pedestrianised section of Moreton Street. She is a stylish and rather adorable example of planning gain - the council forced the developers of the block of flats behind her to pay for her as a condition of permission to build. In the event, this caused a short delay in her arrival because she was commissioned in 2008 just as the world financial crisis hit, delaying construction. She finally rolled into place in 2010.
The figure is a fine example of Wallace's style, smooth and rounded but recognisably derived from the Art Deco influenced 1930s. Look at that hair blowing out behind her in a perfectly airstreamed shape.

Lincoln's Inn Fields WC2 19 Nov 2015 11:54 AM (9 years ago)

Camdonian is a work in sheet steel sprayed in bronze by Barry Flanagan. Its date, 1980, is a critical one in Flanagan's career, marking the time he took up making the bouncy bronze hares for which he is now best known.
Flanagan had previously been one of the main exponents of post-minimalism, the idea that sculptural shapes are a function of materials and can be created by any process whatever. Carl Andre's pile of bricks (sorry, Equivalent VIII) is the most notorious example. Flanagan went even further, causing materials to create their own sculpture by hanging bags of sand or throwing ropes on the ground.
So when he started casting nice, popular, rather jolly statues of hares he was denounced as an apostate by the modernist elite.
However, Camdonian represents a strand in Flanagan's creative output that runs throughout his career. The last sheet steel cutout he made was in 2006, only shortly before he died, using Cor-Ten steel, now the material of choice for any architect aiming at winning the Stirling Prize.
Fun Fact: Flanagan used to tour the Continent in a Rolls Royce towing an Airstream caravan. Now, that's style.

The Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square WC1 14 Nov 2015 3:53 AM (9 years ago)

The face of Thomas Coram dominates the streetscape outside the Foundling Museum and the headquarters of the children's charity that bears his name, and so it should for the old sea captain changed the way Britain treated children. In the 18th century, illegitimate children were being killed at birth in alarming numbers and those that survived could expect a lifetime living under the stigma.
Coram established the Foundling Hospital (primarily a place of hospitality rather than a medical facility, though it soon became involved in treating diseases of childhood) to receive babies no questions asked. At one point a basket was hung outside the door where women could leave newborns they could not bring up.
In the 1920s it was decided to relocate the Hospital to the countryside, in Hertfordshire, and the magnficent Georgian buildings were demolished. A new headquarters for the charity was built in its place, designed in a restrained neo-Georgian style by JM Sheppard and Partners.
A bust of a young-looking Coram is set over the front door, sculpted by David Evans, who presumably also supplied the charming plaques of cherubs.
The building now contains the Foundling Museum which charts the history of the charity and displays the amazing works donated by the artists who supported it, including Hogarth, Gainsborough and Reynolds. The charity, now called simply Coram, has a new building next door, with a 1963 statue of the great man in front.The sculptor, William MacMillan, has more or less recreated the Hogarth portrait in bronze, showing him seated, wearing a greatcoat, holding the Hospital's charter in his right hand and a pair of gloves in his left, as if he was just off on another of his relentless fund-raising expeditions.

Bow Quarter, Fairfield Road E3 7 Nov 2015 9:43 AM (9 years ago)

Noah's Ark was the symbol of Bryant and May's safety matches, for a hundred years the best-selling match in Britain. Their factory in Bow started production in the 1850s and was soon producing more than two million matches a year.
The aim of the Quaker founders and the Swedish engineers who advised on production was to build a model factory with good working conditions and proper precautions to mitigate the effects of phosphorus on the workers (the infamous 'phossy jaw'). Eventually, however, simply being better than the alternative (making matches at home on piece work rates with no safety precautions at all) was no longer acceptable and in 1888 Annie Besant organised the famous match girls' strike, the success of which led to better conditions for all workers.
The factory closed in 1979 and was converted into a gated community.
Noah's Ark is above the gate of a charming redbrick cottage built as an office for the company directors.
A bay window overlooks the entrance gates so the management could keep an eye on latecomers. Below the windows are terracotta high reliefs of a tiger burning bright and a torch remaining alight despite being inverted. The slogan is Ex Luce Lucellum - A Profit from Light. The reference is to a a couple of lines from a poem in Latin that I have been unable to source: "Lucifer aggrediens ex luce haurire lucellum/ Incidit in tenebras; lex nova fumus erat.” (Lucifer approaches to draw a glint of light/ Falls into darkness; The new law was smoke).
The tag was originally applied to the 18th century window tax and was revived in a parliamentary debate about a proposed tax on the old Lucifer matches that Bryant and May hoped to make obsolete.
On the other side of the gate, the clock is flanked by coats of arms in stone, one displaying a lighthouse and a ship, another Bryant and May trade mark. It is repeated in the spandrel of the window above.

St Barnabas Bethnal Green, Roman Road E3 5 Nov 2015 1:17 PM (9 years ago)

The 1865 church of St Barnabas was almost destroyed by bombing in WW2 and reconstructed within the north and south walls by Anthony Lewis. These symbols of the four Evangelists were carved about 1957 by Don Potter, a pupil of Eric Gill who taught sculpture and pottery at Bryanston School.
Potter was given his original break through the unusual mechanism of the Scouts. He became a Wolf Cub in 1910 and as a teenager began to carve, producing Scout stuff like totem poles. In the 1920s he came to the notice of Baden-Powell himself, who recognised his talent and offered him many commissions. He even camped in the grounds of B-P's country house in Hampshire, scrounging fallen 1,000 year old oaks as raw material.
Potter's Evangelists are more spirited than the average depiction. If you have forgotten your iconography, they are (clockwise from top left) the winged lion of Mark, the winged ox of Luke, the winged man of Matthew and the eagle (also winged, naturally) of John.

Bow House (former Poplar Town Hall), Bow Road E3 3 Nov 2015 8:58 AM (9 years ago)

It is easy to overlook the mosaic under the canopy of the old Poplar Town Hall. It was designed in 1937 by David Evans, who also provided the carved workmen on the frieze round the curved corner of the building (architect: Clifford Culpin).
The front of the canopy features symbols of Art, Science, Music and Literature on the front, round the arms of the Borough of Poplar (now, of course, one of the Tower Hamlets).