List of public art in Westminster

This is a list of public art in Westminster, a district in the City of Westminster, London.

Rodin's Burghers of Calais, with the Victoria Tower in the background.

The area's main sculptural showcase is Parliament Square, conceived in the 1860s to improve the setting of the rebuilt Palace of Westminster, to ease traffic flow and as a site for commemorating politicians of note.[1] Statues of the engineers Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel by Carlo Marochetti were initially considered for the square, but were rejected as not fitting in with the political theme. (They were ultimately erected outside Euston station and on the Victoria Embankment.)[2] The square took on its present configuration in a refurbishment of 1949–1950 by the architect George Grey Wornum, though four statues of twentieth-century figures have since been added.[3]

Another two political memorials (one of which, the Buxton Memorial Fountain, was moved by Wornum from Parliament Square) and The Burghers of Calais, a work on a historical theme by Auguste Rodin, are to be found in Victoria Tower Gardens. As the memorials therein all touch on the theme of opposition to injustice, the gardens have been described by David Adjaye, the designer of a projected national Holocaust memorial for that location, as a "park of Britain's conscience".[4]

Map of public art in Westminster

ImageTitle / subjectLocation and
coordinates
DateArtist / designerArchitect / otherTypeDesignationNotes
Bust of Emery HillUnited Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row1675 c. 1675Anon.R. R. Arntz (rebuilding)BustGrade II[5]

More images
Statue of Queen AnneOutside 13 Queen Anne's Gate1708 at latestFrancis BirdStatueGrade I[6]

More images
Statue of George CanningParliament Square

51°30′04″N 0°07′40″W / 51.5010°N 0.1277°W / 51.5010; -0.1277 (Statue of George Canning)
1832Richard WestmacottStatueGrade IIErected 2 May 1832 in New Palace Yard; in its current location since 1949. The features are based on the portrait bust of Canning by Francis Leggatt Chantrey, who was "not at all pleased with the preference shewn to Mr. Westmacott".[7]


More images
Richard Coeur de Lion
Richard I
Old Palace Yard

51°29′57″N 0°07′32″W / 51.4991°N 0.1256°W / 51.4991; -0.1256 (Richard Coeur de Lion)
1856Carlo MarochettiEquestrian statueGrade IIUnveiled 26 October 1860. Casting of a clay model exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition to much acclaim; John Ruskin considered it to be "the only really interesting piece of historical sculpture we have".[8]

More images
Westminster Scholars War MemorialBroad Sanctuary

51°29′58″N 0°07′45″W / 51.4995°N 0.1292°W / 51.4995; -0.1292 (Westminster Scholars War Memorial)
1861John Richard Clayton and John Birnie PhilipGeorge Gilbert ScottColumn with sculptureGrade IICommemorates Lord Raglan and other ex-pupils of Westminster School who died in the Crimean War[9] and the Indian Mutiny. Sculptures represent Saint George and the Dragon, Edward the Confessor and Henry III (builders of Westminster Abbey), Elizabeth I (second founder of the school) and Queen Victoria.[10]

More images
Buxton Memorial Fountain

Inscribed to Buxton, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Macaulay, Brougham, Lushington, et al.

Victoria Tower Gardens

51°29′46″N 0°07′29″W / 51.4961°N 0.1248°W / 51.4961; -0.1248 (Buxton Memorial Fountain)
1865–1866Thomas Earp (figures now lost)Samuel Sanders Teulon with Charles BuxtonDrinking fountainGrade II*Erected in Parliament Square in 1865–1866. Commissioned by Charles Buxton as a memorial to his father Sir Thomas Buxton and his colleagues in the Abolitionist movement, particularly those associated with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Removed in 1949 and re-erected on this site in 1957.[11]

More images
Statue of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of DerbyParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5008°N 0.1273°W / 51.5008; -0.1273 (Statue of Edward Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby)
1874Matthew NobleStatueGrade IIUnveiled 11 July 1874. Derby is represented wearing his robes as Chancellor of Oxford University. The bronze reliefs around the pedestal depicting scenes from his life were executed by Noble's assistant, Horace Montford.[12]

More images
Statue of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount PalmerstonParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5009°N 0.1271°W / 51.5009; -0.1271 (Statue of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston)
1876Thomas WoolnerStatueGrade IIUnveiled 2 February 1876. Palmerston is portrayed in middle age, before he became Prime Minister. The pedestal departs from the "Gothic" model of the nearby statues of Derby and Peel.[13]

More images
Statue of Sir Robert Peel, 2nd BaronetParliament Square

51°30′02″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5005°N 0.1273°W / 51.5005; -0.1273 (Statue of Robert Peel)
1877 (unveiled)Matthew NobleStatueGrade IIInitially a statue of Peel was commissioned from Carlo Marochetti. This was ready by 1853 but was considered to be far too large. Marochetti produced a smaller work which was placed at the entrance to New Palace Yard; this was removed in 1868 and melted down in 1874.[14]
Bust of the Rev. James PalmerUnited Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row1882 c. 1882Anon.R. R. ArntzBustGrade II[15]

More images
Statue of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of BeaconsfieldParliament Square

51°30′02″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5006°N 0.1273°W / 51.5006; -0.1273 (Statue of Benjamin Disraeli)
1883Mario RaggiStatueGrade IIUnveiled 19 April 1883. The statue was the "shrine" of the Primrose League, a Conservative association established in Disraeli's memory. This group had an annual tradition of leaving wreaths in front of the statue on "Primrose Day", the anniversary of the prime minister's death.[16]

More images
The Burghers of CalaisVictoria Tower Gardens

51°29′51″N 0°07′30″W / 51.4975°N 0.1249°W / 51.4975; -0.1249 (The Burghers of Calais)
1884–1889Auguste RodinEric Gill (lettering)Sculptural groupGrade IUnveiled 19 July 1915. The National Art Collections Fund bought the cast in 1910. Rodin wanted the group situated "near the statue of William the Conqueror" (sic) but eventually agreed on a site in Victoria Tower Gardens.[17] The work was relocated and given its current pedestal in 2004.[18]

More images
Statue of Oliver CromwellNew Palace Yard

51°30′00″N 0°07′33″W / 51.4999°N 0.1259°W / 51.4999; -0.1259 (Statue of Oliver Cromwell)
1899William Hamo ThornycroftStatueGrade IIUnveiled 18 November 1899.[19] The decision to erect a statue to Cromwell was controversial; the Irish Nationalist Party forced the withdrawal of public funds to pay for the statue. Instead an anonymous donor, rumoured to be Lord Rosebery, paid for the work.[20]
Bust of Charles ISt Margaret's Church20th century?Anon. (after Anthony van Dyck)W. A. Forsyth (niche)BustGrade I[21]
War memorialChurchyard of St John's, Smith Square, facing Dean Stanley Street

51°29′46″N 0°07′36″W / 51.4960°N 0.1268°W / 51.4960; -0.1268 (St John's, Smith Square War Memorial)
after 1918?CrossCommemorates the 120 parishioners of the church who died in World War I.[22]


More images
Statue of Abraham LincolnParliament Square

51°30′02″N 0°07′40″W / 51.5006°N 0.1278°W / 51.5006; -0.1278 (Statue of Abraham Lincoln)
1920 (unveiled)Augustus Saint-GaudensMcKim, Mead & WhiteStatueGrade IIUnveiled July 1920. A replica of the statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Initially the statue was to be erected in 1914, but this was postponed until 1917. By that time some favoured an alternative statue by George Grey Barnard; this was eventually erected in Manchester.[23]
Drinking fountain with two groups of a nanny goat and kidVictoria Tower Gardens

51°29′42″N 0°07′29″W / 51.4951°N 0.1248°W / 51.4951; -0.1248 (Drinking fountain with two groups of a nanny goat and kid)
1923Miss Harris assisted by Charles Sargeant JaggerDrinking fountain with sculptural groupsGiven by Henry Gage Spicer, the director of a paper firm, for the poor children of the area who used the Gardens as a playground. The extent of "Miss Harris's" involvement in the art deco sculptures is questionable.[24]

More images
Memorial to Emmeline and Christabel PankhurstVictoria Tower Gardens

51°29′52″N 0°07′31″W / 51.4979°N 0.1253°W / 51.4979; -0.1253 (Memorial to Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst)
1930Arthur George WalkerHerbert Baker (1930); Peter Hills (1959)Statue with side screens and piersGrade II*The statue of Emmeline Pankhurst was unveiled on 6 March 1930 by Stanley Baldwin and moved to its present site in 1956. The stone screens were added in 1959 as a memorial to her daughter. Two bronze plaques show, on the right, a portrait medallion of Christabel Pankhurst and, on the left, the design on the WSPU prisoners' badge.[25]
Prophet of Assembly of the Church of EnglandChurch House, Dean's Yardc. 1936–1940Charles WheelerHerbert Baker and A. T. ScottArchitectural sculptureGrade II[26]

More images
Statue of George VOld Palace Yard

51°29′56″N 0°07′35″W / 51.4990°N 0.1263°W / 51.4990; -0.1263 (Statue of George V)
1947 (unveiled)William Reid DickGiles Gilbert ScottStatueGrade IIUnveiled 22 October 1947 by George VI. Completion of the statue was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War; the statue was stored at the quarry in Portland for the duration of the conflict.[27]

More images
Statue of Jan SmutsParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′37″W / 51.5009°N 0.1269°W / 51.5009; -0.1269 (Statue of Jan Smuts)
1956Jacob Epsteinpossibly Charles HoldenStatueGrade IIUnveiled 7 November 1956. Winston Churchill, on his return to power in 1951, wished to erect a statue to Smuts; he was, however, unable to perform the unveiling due to illness. The pedestal is of granite from South Africa.[24]

More images
Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65Abingdon Street Gardens (College Green)

51°29′53″N 0°07′34″W / 51.4980°N 0.1260°W / 51.4980; -0.1260 (Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65)
1962–1965Henry MooreSculptureGrade II*Unveiled 1 November 1967. A gift by Henry Moore and the Contemporary Art Society.[28] Over the years the work's condition deteriorated because its legal owner was unknown.[29] The House of Commons accepted ownership of the sculpture in 2011; it is now part of the Parliamentary Art Collection.[30]
Christ of the Sacred HeartChapel of the Sacred Heart, Horseferry Road1964Arthur FleischmannHarry G. ClacyArchitectural sculpture[31]
Man and WomanAlbany House, Petty France1964Willi SoukopD. E. HarringtonArchitectural sculpture[32]

More images
Statue of Winston ChurchillParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′35″W / 51.5008°N 0.1265°W / 51.5008; -0.1265 (Statue of Winston Churchill)
1973Ivor Roberts-JonesStatueGrade IIUnveiled 1 November 1973 by Clementine, Lady Spencer-Churchill. Churchill indicated his desire for a statue of himself in this spot during Wornum's reconfiguration of Parliament Square. An early version of the statue was felt to bear too close a resemblance to Benito Mussolini and had to be modified.[33]
CrucifixionCollege Garden, Westminster Abbey1974Enzo PlazzottaSculptural groupA group depicting the crucified Christ with the Good and Bad Thieves, donated to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey in 1993.[34]

More images
Jubilee Fountain

Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II

New Palace Yard

51°30′02″N 0°07′31″W / 51.5005°N 0.1252°W / 51.5005; -0.1252 (Jubilee Fountain)
1977Walenty PytelFountain with sculptureUnveiled 4 May 1977 by Elizabeth II. The two tiers of animals represent the continents: on the lower tier are a lion for Africa, a unicorn for Europe and a tiger for Asia, on the upper an eagle for the Americas, a kangaroo for Australia and a penguin for Antarctica.[35]
Planned GrowthRowan House, Greycoat Street1986–1987Peter ThursbyRenton Howard Wood LevineReliefAwarded the Royal Society of British Sculptors' silver medal in 1987.[36]
Memorial to Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and WarBroad Sanctuary

51°29′59″N 0°07′43″W / 51.4996°N 0.1286°W / 51.4996; -0.1286 (Memorial to Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and War)
1996?Plaque in pavementUnveiled 10 October 1996 by Elizabeth II.[37]
FountainSt John's Gardens2001??FountainA replacement for a 19th-century fountain which had become derelict. Installed as part of the redevelopment of the Westminster Hospital site.[38]
Golden Jubilee Sundial

Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II

Old Palace Yard

51°29′56″N 0°07′34″W / 51.4990°N 0.1261°W / 51.4990; -0.1261 (Golden Jubilee Sundial)
2002Quentin Newark (of Atelier Works)Incisive Lettering (lettering)Analemmatic sundial in pavementParliament's gift to the Queen on her Golden Jubilee.[39] The inscription around the rim is from Henry VI, Part 3: To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, thereby to see the minutes how they run: how many makes the hour full complete, how many hours brings about the day, how many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live.[40]
ScreensSt John's Gardens2005Wendy RamshawMetalwork grilles12 grilles set into the existing red brick wall between the gardens and the former Westminster Hospital, commissioned as a Section 106 requirement for the development of the hospital site into upmarket residential accommodation.[38][41]

More images
Statue of Nelson MandelaParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′35″W / 51.5008°N 0.1265°W / 51.5008; -0.1265 (Statue of Nelson Mandela)
2007Ian WaltersStatueUnveiled 29 August 2007. Westminster City Council had earlier refused permission for placing the statue in Trafalgar Square adjacent to South Africa House.[42] On a visit to London in 1961, Mandela had joked that one day his statue would replace that of Jan Smuts; they now both have statues in Parliament Square.[43]

More images
Statue of David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of DwyforParliament Square

51°30′03″N 0°07′36″W / 51.5008°N 0.1267°W / 51.5008; -0.1267 (Statue of David Lloyd George)
2007 (unveiled)Glynn WilliamsStatueUnveiled 25 October 2007 by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. The bronze figure stands on a plinth of slate from Penrhyn Quarry, North Wales.[44]

More images
Lines for the Supreme CourtOutside the Supreme Court at Middlesex Guildhall2009?Inscription on curved wallThe complete text of a poem by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, which he also read out at the Supreme Court's opening ceremony.[45]
Statue of Elizabeth ILittle Dean's Yard2010Matthew SpenderStatueUnveiled 21 May 2010. Commemorates the 450th anniversary of the founding of Westminster School by Elizabeth I. The sculptor (the son of the poet Stephen Spender) is an old boy of the school.[46]
Memorial to William VincentVincent Square2010Karen NewmanPlaque with relief sculptureCommissioned by the Vincent Square Residents Association to mark the bicentenary of the square's creation as playing fields for Westminster School, of which Dean Vincent was headmaster. Based on a portrait by William Owen and inscribed ELOQUERE PUER ELOQUERE ("speak out, boy, speak out"), an oft-heard utterance of the Dean's.[47]
Fruit sculpturesAbbey Orchard Estate courtyard

51°29′52″N 0°07′52″W / 51.4978°N 0.1311°W / 51.4978; -0.1311 (Fruit sculptures)
2012Sarah StatonSculpturesGigantic sculptures of English fruit, made to appear as if they have fallen from the plane trees nearby.[48] The scheme won the UK Landscape Award for Artworks in 2012.[49]

More images
Statue of Mahatma GandhiParliament Square

51°30′02″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5006°N 0.1272°W / 51.5006; -0.1272 (Statue of Mahatma Gandhi)
2015Philip JacksonStatueUnveiled 14 March 2015, on the centenary of Gandhi's return to India from South Africa. The statue is based on a photograph of Gandhi at 10 Downing Street, from a 1931 visit to London in which he met Ramsay MacDonald.[50]

More images
Statue of Millicent FawcettParliament Square2018Gillian WearingStatueUnveiled 24 April 2018. Commissioned as part of commemorations of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918.[51]
Pan African Flag for the Relic Travellers' Alliance (Union)Westminster tube station2022Larry AchiampongInstallationThe London Underground roundel in the pan-African colours, with 54 stars representing the countries of Africa.[52]

Architectural sculpture of Westminster Abbey

ImageTitle / subjectLocation and
coordinates
DateArtist / designerArchitect / otherTypeDesignationNotes
Statue of Saint Maximilian KolbeAbove Great West Door1998Andrew TannerStatue in nicheGrade I[53]
Statue of Manche MasemolaAbove Great West Door1998John RobertsStatue in nicheGrade I[54]
Statue of Archbishop Janani LuwumAbove Great West Door1998Neil SimmonsStatue in nicheGrade I[55]
Statue of Grand Duchess Elizabeth of RussiaAbove Great West Door1998John RobertsStatue in nicheGrade I[56]
Statue of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.Above Great West Door1998Tim CrawleyStatue in nicheGrade I[57]
Statue of Archbishop Óscar RomeroAbove Great West Door1998John RobertsStatue in nicheGrade I[58]
Statue of Dietrich BonhoefferAbove Great West Door1998Tim CrawleyStatue in nicheGrade I[59]
Statue of Esther JohnAbove Great West Door1998Neil SimmonsStatue in nicheGrade I[60]
Statue of Lucian TapiediAbove Great West Door1998Tim CrawleyStatue in nicheGrade I[61]
Statue of Wang ZhimingAbove Great West Door1998Neil SimmonsStatue in nicheGrade I[62]

Works formerly on display outdoors

ImageTitle / subjectLocation and
coordinates
DateArtist / designerArchitect / otherTypeDesignationNotes
Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Faith and HopeFormerly in College Garden, Westminster Abbey (removed for conservation, to be displayed in the Triforium by mid-2018)[63]

51°29′52″N 0°07′38″W / 51.4977°N 0.1273°W / 51.4977; -0.1273 (Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Faith and Hope)
1686Grinling Gibbons and Artus Quellinus IIIStatuesGrade IIFour marble statues from the altarpiece of the Catholic chapel at the Palace of Whitehall, commissioned by James II and designed by Christopher Wren. The altarpiece was dismantled after the Whitehall Palace fire of 1695. These fragments are in very poor condition.[64]

See also

References

Bibliography

  • Baines, Phil; Dixon, Catherine (2003). Signs: Lettering in the environment. London: Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 1856693376.
  • Black, Jonathan (2013). "Making the Rock of Gibraltar: Ivor Roberts-Jones and the Sir Winston Churchill Commission for Parliament Square (1970–73)". In Jonathan, Black; Ayres, Sara (eds.). Abstraction and Reality: The Sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones. London: Philip Wilson Publishers. pp. 63–83. ISBN 978-1781300107.
  • Hall, James (2003). "Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais". In Verdi, Richard (ed.). Saved! 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund. London: Scala. pp. 128–133. ISBN 9781857593044.
  • Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Public Sculpture of Britain. Vol. 14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-691-3.