LONDON STATUES - PERFORMING ARTS
London Statues - Performing Arts
I don't have the time to wax lyrical about all of them; after all I still have plenty of other categories to cover. So for most of the subjects I'm limiting myself to some off-beat teasers. For more, clicking on the names will take you to their Wikipedia entries. Music
is a notable omission here, but that’s deliberate: it’s a rich enough seam to
deserve a post of its own.
ANNA PAVLOVA Victoria Palace Theatre
Russian ballerina whose name inspired a dessert.
As my regular readers will know, this immediately sent me searching for a Nellie Melba statue; but there doesn't appear to be one in London. However, there is this stained-glass window in the Holy Sepulchre Church in Holborn ......
Auguste Escoffier named peach Melba after Australia's diva queen, along with Melba sauce, Melba toast and Melba garniture (chicken, truffles and mushrooms).
While we're on the subject, let us not forget there are many statues in London of the lady who gave her name to the Victoria Sponge - featured in my recent epic on English monarchs. While you're there check out George I, after whom King's Ginger Cake is named, seemingly his only meaningful contribution to humanity.
Nellie Melba's window can be seen in The Musicians' Chapel which has similar windows honouring other musicians including Henry Wood, founder and conductor of the Proms for nearly 50 years. When he died in 1944, his ashes were interred here.
DAVID WALL - Millbank
Jeté, by Enzo Plazzotta
DAVID GARRICK 27 Southampton Street
English actor, playwright, producer and theatre manager. The Garrick Club was named in his honour.
MARGOT FONTEYN National Portrait Gallery
English ballerina who was considering retiring when Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Kirov Ballet. The rest, as they say, is history.
National Theatre as Hamlet National Portrait Gallery Café
NOEL COWARD National Portrait Gallery
Wrote
plays, songs, and quips at the speed of light—reportedly dictating one-liners
while still in bed. Here are a few of his bon mots ....
I love criticism just so long as it's unqualified praise.
Familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity it is impossible to breed anything.
People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it.
Hollywood is the place where some people lie on the beach and look at the stars, whereas other people lie on the stars and look down on the beach.
Georgian stage actress, so revered that members of the audience reportedly fainted during her performances.
This statue, by Léon-Joseph Chavalliaud, was unveiled in 1897 by Henry Irving and is based on Joshua Reynolds portrait of Siddons as The Tragic Muse.
National Portrait Gallery Guildhall Art Gallery as Hamlet
The first actor ever to be knighted - shocking Victorian society but legitimising acting as a respectable profession. Bram Stoker was Irving's business manager for 27 years and many believe Irving's shadowy charisma influenced the creation of Dracula.
WILL KEMPE Ilford Wetherspoons
The Great Spoon of Ilford gets its name from a measure of ale known as a spoon (about two pints). Inside the pub is this statue of Elizabethan actor Will Kempe who, when dancing his way to London from Norwich, stopped for a spoon in Ilford.
DANIEL RADCLIFFE AS HARRY POTTER Leicester Square
Radcliffe was only eleven when cast as Harry. He grew so quickly during filming that continuity teams quietly panicked.
ROWAN ATKINSON AS MR BEAN Leicester Square
As one of the most recognisable actors on earth, it's well worth checking out Rowan Atkinson recounting a story of mistaken identity on The Graham Norton Show. Click here.
LAUREL AND HARDY Leicester Square
Stan and Ollie's screen partnership lasted over thirty happy years, yet off-camera they were nothing alike - one cautious and private, the other sociable and extravagant. In fact, when not on set, they rarely saw each other.
Leicester Square
The silent screen icon once entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest - and failed to win.
Gadot, a former Miss Israel, pursued a modelling career whilst she was in the army, a useful rehearsal for Wonder Woman.
Leicester Square
Julie Andrews won an Oscar for this role - after being passed over for My Fair Lady.
Gene Kelly filmed the famous rain-dancing scene while running a high fever. He later admitted his shoes were deliberately squeaky to enhance the rhythm.
Leicester Square
She famously
gained weight for the role, then said, “I didn’t gain a pound for Hollywood - I
gained a story.”
KAJOL & SHAH RUKH KHAN IN DDLJ
Leicester Square
Stars of the Hindi blockbuster Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride), the highest grossing Indian film of 1995. Its soundtrack was later voted the greatest Hindi soundtrack of all time by BBC Asian Network listeners.
BATMAN Leicester Square
Shorter ears: not the towering 1980s comic spikes, so not Wilson or West.
Armoured suit: definitely not spandex. This is the “I could stop a small calibre round with my shoulder” era.
No yellow oval on the chest: that vanished around the time mobile phones got colour screens.
Cape doing dramatic things: always a good sign you’re in post‑2000s Batman territory.
Features: brooding with strong jawline.
Putting it all together, the closest cinematic match is probably Christian Bale.
This is all getting dreadfully nerdy. Best move on.
MICHAEL CAINE Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe
The other portrait bench statue alongside is of Phyllis Pearsall, founder of the A-Z street maps, born locally, as was Mr Mickelwhite.
JOAN LITTLEWOOD Stratford East
Revolutionary stage director who despised theatrical snobbery, believing theatre should be as cheap, urgent and disruptive as a newspaper. Often described as The Mother of Modern Theatre.
TERRY THOMAS Guildhall Art Gallery
Famous
for his gap-toothed grin, he once refused to play a role unless he could wear a
monocle.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK Poole Street
Between 1924 and 1951, Gainsborough Studios stood here. This is where Hitch served his apprenticeship before heading for Hollywood. It would have been nice to capture a few menacing birds in shot, but it was too cold to wait hopefully for a photo-op. I only fared slightly better with Hitchcock's Reel in the adjacent Shoreditch Park .....
Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone where he edges out David Beckham for local legend status - perhaps because he never played for Manchester United.
These mosaics at Leytonstone Station, dedicated to the Master of Suspense, can feel distinctly spooky after dark.
The Skin Game, The Birds, Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo.
I must confess I'm not a big fan of Hitchcock's work. But I do, on occasion, make a cameo appearance at the pub which bears his name.
Thank you ChatGPT ....
Charles Street Croydon
If there is such a thing as a smaller half, Ronnie Corbett was that element of the Two Ronnies.
Peggy Ashcroft's stage career spanned sixty years; she once joked she’d played Hamlet in
rehearsal just to keep life interesting.
SYBIL THORNDIKE National Portrait Gallery
Performed Shakespeare into her 90s, claiming she could still “scare the youth off the stage” with a glare. This bust by Jacob Epstein seems to endorse that.
And finally - a man who insisted on having the last word.
SPIKE MILLIGAN Stephens' House, Finchley
The goonish glory of Milligan's wit is impossible to capture in bronze, but this statue hints at the chaos behind the genius. It's all in the detail .....
The elephant probably refers to the fact Spike was born in India - although it has the ears of an African elephant. He wrote several autobiographical books about his wartime service, including Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall.
The Goons - Secombe, Milligan and Sellers
Neddie Seagoon Bluebottle and Eccles
King Charles was a big fan of the Goons, see the British Comedy Awards.
Harry Secombe was an accomplished tenor. Spike once famously joked he wanted Harry to die before him, as he didn't want him singing at his funeral. Harry died in 2001, Spike the following year - so we'll never know. My guess is Harry would have orchestrated a dramatic build-up and then launched into the Ying Tong Song.
Spike's headstone, in the East Sussex village of Winchelsea bears the inscription "I told you I was ill". In Irish Gaelic.
Spike's headstone, in the East Sussex village of Winchelsea bears the inscription "I told you I was ill". In Irish Gaelic.
Inventive to the end, Spike Milligan wrote the punchline to his life.
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