ANIMAL STATUES IN LONDON 2
Animal Statues in London 2
Poplar
From 1745, respected businessman James How and his wife were landlords of the White Horse. But in 1766, on her deathbed, Mrs How confessed to a friend that her husband was actually a woman. James How was subsequently blackmailed and eventually decided to take the extortionists to court. For three decades How had been accepted as a man by the people of Poplar; so there was quite a scene when he turned up on the opening day of the trial in a dress and revealed his real identity was Mary East. Mary won the case but was obliged to give up the pub and resign from the civic positions she held as a man. However, she was allowed to keep her business fortune and lived the rest of her life comfortably as a woman.
Mary East died in 1780. She left her money to relatives, friends and the poor of Poplar.
Islington Green
This statue is a memorial to Bob, the scarf-wearing
stray cat that inspired down-and-out James Bowen to write his best-selling book.
Their story also spawned two movies. Sadly, Bob died after being hit by a car in
2020. The bronze statue, by Tanya Russell, was unveiled in 2021. It stands in
front of Waterstone’s book shop where Bowen wrote about ‘the cat that
saved his life’.
Highgate Hill
The story is (very loosely) based on the real Richard Whittington who was thrice Lord Mayor of London between 1397 and 1420. However, he came from a wealthy family and there’s no record of him ever owning a cat ..... or standing on this spot.
And the powers that be didn't pussy about. Not content with erecting a statue to a fictitious cat they also named the local hospital and pub to commemorate this non-event.
Green Park
Not to be confused with Diana, Princess of Wales, this is the Constance Fund Fountain of Diana portraying the Greek goddess Diana unleashing a hunting dog. In 1954 it replaced an earlier (1860) version and can be found close to Green Park underground station
Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens
The Boy And Dolphin Fountain was sculpted in 1862 by Alexander Munro, a friend of Lewis Carroll. I guess the Victorians didn't find dolphins as cute as we do; and they were quite ok with their kids manhandling them. By the way, that's a real magpie. It finally decided to pose after spending an inordinate amount of time taking a dip in the fountain.
The Cavalry Memorial remembers the cavalrymen who lost their lives in two World Wars. And let us not forget the estimated eight million horses who perished in WW1, marking the end of mounted warfare.
Adrian Jones, an army veteran, designed the sculpture which depicts St George on horseback, above the vanquished dragon. The work contains bronze from guns captured in WWI. It was originally installed at Stanhope Gate in 1924 and moved to Hyde Park in 1961.
Serenity (2009) by Simon Gudgeon is a large bronze ibis, the Egyptian goddess of nature.
Physical Energy, by English artist George Frederic Watts, was cast in bronze in 1902. There exist two other identical casts in Harare and Cape Town.
Various animals - including mice, rabbits and squirrels - adorn the base of this iconic statue of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. The creation of Sir George Frampton, the statue was commissioned and donated by Barrie himself in 1912. It is situated to the west of the Long Water, on the spot where Peter lands his bird's-nest boat in The Little White Bird.
The charming Two Bears Drinking Fountain, created by Kenneth Keeble-Smith, has been here since 1939. But this isn't the original which was stolen in 1967.
Warwick Lane
I'm not sure if these nice elephant door knockers qualify as statues. They can be found on the doors of Cutler's Hall. The Worshipful Company of Cutlers was one of the 111 livery companies which once existed in the City of London. An elephant is featured on their coat of arms.
St Helen's Place
The Roebuck and Ram are either side of the front door of Leathersellers Hall, home of another livery company. The alms-houses of the Leathersellers Company stood near here from 1543 to 1866.
Highwalk, London Wall
For the time being, Union - Horse with Two Discs remains in front of what was the Museum of London, currently being relocated to Smithfield. The statue has been here since 2005.
Montagu Street
Two lions flank the group entrance at the rear of the British Museum. They were sculpted by Sir George Frampton who also created three statues of Queen Victoria and the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.
Gerrard Street
There are lions aplenty in Chinatown. But this traditional pair in Gerrard Street are the most prominent. Their location is often a meeting point for peaceful protests by Chinese activists.
The male has his paw on a ball and is always on the right. The female's paw is on her lion cub. However, the Chinese refer to the orientation from the point of view of the lions, so they would say the lioness is on the right.
Cadogan Square
Girl with Doves is another David Wynne creation. But you'll have to view it from afar as Cadogan Square Gardens are for residents only. Or, if you have a spare £5 million, you could buy a flat here.
Archway
This retro Guinness ad outside the Archway Tavern has been lovingly preserved - although the clock has stopped. It was installed for the millennium. These Guinness displays were once commonplace - and the ostrich always had a pint glass stuck in his throat.
The pub featured on the cover of the Kinks 1971 Muswell Hillbillies album.
Cranbrook Estate
The Blind Beggar and his Dog (1958) by Elisabeth Frink is Grade II heritage listed. It stands in a communal garden for the elderly living on the Cranbrook Estate, Bethnal Green.
The blind beggar was reputed to be Henry de Montford, son of Simon de Montford, who ended up begging in Bethnal Green after losing his sight in the Battle of Evesham (1265). However, the more likely story is that Henry actually died at Evesham.
The famous Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel - where Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell - also owes its name to this unlikely tale.
Cranbrook Estate consists of a mixture of dwellings laid out around the figure-of-eight Mace Street. Six tower blocks, completed in 1963, dominate the development.
Design of the estate was masterminded by Soviet architect Berthold Lubetkin in a slum-clearance initiative already started by the Luftwaffe who had destroyed 3,120 houses in Bethnal Green during the blitz.
Lubetkin had pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s with a wide range of projects (including the penguin pool at London Zoo).
Old Gloucester Street
These two small cat statues are unrelated. Humphrey (left) is in the Alf Barratt Playground and Sam can be found in Queen Square Gardens.
Humphrey was the resident cat at the Mary Ward Centre College in Queen Square. He was sculpted by Marcia Debra Solway when she was a student there. Marcia suffered from epilepsy and died, aged 34, in 1992, the same year as Humphrey. Following Marcia's death the statue was first placed in Queen Square and then moved the short distance to the playground named after Alf Barratt, a local activist in the 1960s and 70s who campaigned for better housing for the working class.
Nurse Patricia Penn (1914-1992) was also a champion of local causes. The statue of her beloved Sam was donated by the local community on the tenth anniversary of her death. Apparently, in committee meetings, Patricia would allude to rumours by saying, "Sam told me something is going on". The original memorial was stolen in 2007. It was replaced (with added steel rods) in 2009.
Greek Street
You won't find many statues of snails on this blog. But this is a very familiar one above the legendary Soho restaurant. Riding the snail is George Gaudin who founded L'Escargot in 1927, farming snails in the basement. I once lunched at L'Escargot, shelling out (see what I did there) £16 for a starter of six tasty gastropods.
Holland Park
Tortoises with Triangle and Time adjacent to Abbotsbury Road is a sundial created by Wendy Taylor in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium.
Boy With Bear Cubs is by John Macallen Swan.
Does topiary count as sculptures?
Close to Holland Park, in front of the Ukrainian Religious Society of St Sophia, is this statue of St Volodymyr, pictured two days after the Oval Office fiasco. St Volodymyr, aka Vladimir the Great, was the Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 to 1015. His statue was erected in 1988 to celebrate the establishment of Christianity in Ukraine by Volodymry in 988.
New Street
This merino ram tops the former archway of Cooper's Wool Warehouse, built in 1863. It was preserved when the warehouses were converted into offices in the 1980s. It is close to Petticoat Lane which you won't find on any street map; the famous Sunday market is actually in Middlesex Street.
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