LONDON STATUES - PIONEERS
LONDON STATUES - PIONEERS
HENRY THE NAVIGATOR (1394–1460)
Although nicknamed “the Navigator,” Prince Henry of Portugal never actually went on voyages of discovery himself. Instead, he acted as the great enabler of the Age of Discovery — sponsoring expeditions along the West African coast and encouraging advances in navigation, cartography, and ship design. His support helped establish Portugal as Europe’s leading maritime power and laid the groundwork for the sea routes to Africa, India and eventually the Americas.
Columbus was an Italian explorer whose westward voyages across the Atlantic, sponsored by Spain, opened sustained contact between Europe and the Americas. Although he died believing he had reached the outskirts of Asia, his four voyages transformed world history, marking the beginning of globalization.
Columbus’s 1492 voyage is often credited with the “discovery” of North America, though it’s widely acknowledged he landed in the Caribbean and never set foot on the continent itself. Evidence also suggests that Vikings reached parts of North America almost 500 years earlier. 
Belgrave Square
His statue, a gift from Spain, was unveiled in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of his “discovery.” It sits directly opposite the Spanish embassy in Belgrave Square.
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FRANCIS DRAKE (1540–1596)
Explorer and privateer, Drake is best remembered as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe - a journey that took three years. A national hero in England and a pirate to the Spanish, he played a key role in defeating the Spanish Armada and helped establish England as a rising naval power.
Royal Naval College Deptford Town Hall
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
WALTER RALEIGH (1552-1618)
Some say it was Irish traders, not Raleigh, who first brought the potato to Britain. A favourite of Elizabeth I, he did much to popularise tobacco in Europe. The legend of him laying his cloak over a puddle for the Queen’s benefit is almost certainly apocryphal.
Royal Naval College, Greenwich
JOHN SMITH (1580–1631)
A soldier, adventurer and relentless self-publicist, Captain John Smith was one of the driving forces behind the survival of Jamestown - England’s first permanent settlement in North America. He was a veteran of European wars even before crossing the Atlantic, and his maps, writings and sometimes questionable heroics shaped early English views of the New World.
He famously claimed he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, daughter of a native chief.
St Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside
CHRISTOPHER JONES (c.1570–1622)
A seasoned mariner rather than a religious idealist, Christopher Jones was the working captain of the Mayflower, hired to transport the Pilgrims across the Atlantic in 1620. Pragmatic and experienced, he was possibly more concerned with cargo than conscience. After delivering the settlers to New England and enduring a grim winter, he quietly sailed home and died two years later - never knowing the future fame of his voyage.
St Mary's Churchyard, Rotherhithe
This statue of Jones is close to where the Mayflower set sail in 1620; as is this very popular pub .....
The Mayflower's distinctly Dickensian interior gives it a very olde worlde feel. But, like much of the docks area, it was rebuilt after WWII, having been flattened by German bombs.
JAMES WOLFE (1727–1759)
General Wolfe secured his place in history with a dramatic British victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. His leadership effectively opened Canada to British control. Young, intense, and physically fragile, Wolfe was wounded three times but lived long enough to see the British victory - turning him into a national hero.
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Greenwich Park
Standing next to the Royal Observatory, Wolfe's statue has arguably in one of the best locations in London. It was presented by the Canadian people in 1930 and (rather oddly) unveiled by the Marquis de Montcalm, a descendent of the French general defeated by Wolfe.
JAMES COOK (1728–1779)
Captain Cook was one of the greatest maritime explorers in history, charting vast areas of the Pacific with unprecedented accuracy. His voyages mapped New Zealand, Australia’s east coast, Hawaii and many Pacific islands. His charts remained in use well into the 19th century. Cook also helped eradicate scurvy on long sea voyages through diet control. He was killed in Hawaii during a conflict with islanders.
The Mall
Royal Naval College Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
MATTHEW FLINDERS (1774–1814)
Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia (1801–03), proving it was a single landmass. Although he didn't invent the term, he is credited with popularising the name “Australia”. His meticulous surveys produced the first accurate maps of the continent, though much of his achievement went unrecognised during his lifetime - his work published on the day he died. Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia (1801–03), proving it was a single landmass. Although he didn’t invent the name “Australia,” he popularised it. His meticulous surveys provided the first accurate maps of the continent, even though much of his achievement went unrecognised in his lifetime - his work was published the day he died.
Euston Station
Archaeologists working on HS2, which will terminate at Euston Station, discovered the remains of Flinders in January 2019. In his statue he is with his pet cat Trim, named after the butler in Laurence Sterne's book Tristram Shandy. In 1924 Wetherspoons opened The Captain Flinders, a new pub next to Euston Station.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813–1873)
Royal Geographical Society Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
ROBERT FALCON SCOTT (1868–1912)
Waterloo Place
Roald Amundsen (centre) and his 1911 South Pole team, outside the Fram Museum, Oslo
ERNEST SHACKLETON (1874–1922)
Shackleton is remembered less for what he discovered than for how he led. His 1914 expedition to be the first to cross Antarctica from sea to sea became legendary when his ship Endurance was crushed by ice. Yet, through extraordinary leadership, he brought every one of his men home alive. Their open-boat journey to South Georgia is considered one of the greatest feats of survival ever. When Shackleton eventually got back to England in 1917, Europe was in the midst of the First World War. His offer to then go and fight in the trenches was refused as he was suffering from a heart condition - and too old to be conscripted.
Royal Geographical Society
Where the Royal Geographical Society has Livingstone on one side and Shackleton on the other is known as 'hot and cold corner'.JOHN ALCOCK AND ARTHUR WHITTEN BROWN (1892–1919 and 1886–1948)
Alcock and Brown were aviators who, in 1919, made the first non-stop transatlantic flight, flying from Newfoundland to Ireland in just under 16 hours. Earlier transatlantic flights would have had refuelling stops in Portugal and The Azores. Their plane, which had no radio and only basic navigation tools, crash-landed in an Irish bog at the end of the flight. Alcock was killed in a flying accident later the same year.
Town Hall, Crayford Hall
Alcock and Brown made their historic journey in a Vickers Vimy biplane, originally built in the Vickers factory in Crayford. YURI GAGARIN (1934-1968)
In 1961 Gagarin became the first human to journey into space. His single orbit aboard Vostok 1 made him an international icon and a symbol of the Space Race at its height. Unlike later cosmonauts and astronauts he did not land inside his capsule, ejecting and parachuting to earth. He became an international celebrity, visiting London during a worldwide tour in 1961 (when Alec Gordon took young his young son Steve to see him).
Tragically, Gagarin died aged just 34 in a routine training flight, but his achievement permanently changed humanity’s relationship with space.
Persistent rumours claimed earlier Soviet space missions ended in fatalities. But later access to Soviet archives has shown that Yuri Gagarin really was the first - and that the secrecy of the Cold War did as much to create myths as rockets did.
Science Museum
Until recently the statue was at the Royal Observatory. A gift from the Russian Space Agency, it is a copy of an existing one outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy where he trained as a foundry worker.
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