This is a list of public art in Kensington , a district in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London.
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
More images | Memorial to the Great Exhibition | Kensington Gore 51°30′01″N0°10′38″W / 51.5004°N 0.1773°W | 1863 | Joseph Durham | Sydney Smirke | Statue with other sculpture | Grade II | Erected in June 1863 in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society in South Kensington. Moved to its present site in the early 1890s. [1] Another cast of the statue of Prince Albert is in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. [2] |
More images | Shields | Royal Albert Hall | c. 1866 | Godfrey Sykes | Francis Fowke | Reliefs | Grade I | 63 terracotta shields with 27 different charges, [3] installed after Sykes's early death in 1866. [4] |
Lions | Imperial College Road, at the foot of the Queen's Tower 51°29′55″N0°10′37″W / 51.4985°N 0.1769°W | 1887 | ? | Thomas Edward Collcutt | Sculpture | [5] | ||
More images | Statue of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala | Queen's Gate 51°30′05″N0°10′49″W / 51.5013°N 0.1803°W | 1891 | Joseph Edgar Boehm | — | Equestrian statue | Grade II | Originally stood in Waterloo Place; moved to its current site in 1921. A replica of the statue to Napier in Kolkata. The boundary line with Kensington and Chelsea bisects the length of this statue. [6] In 2004 the artist Eleonora Aguiari wrapped the statue in bright red tape as a comment on Britain's imperialist past. [7] |
Memorial to the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 | Façade of Ognisko Polskie, 55 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road elevation 51°29′57″N0°10′27″W / 51.4991°N 0.1741°W | 1960 | Ferenc Kovács | Plaque with relief sculpture | [8] | |||
Scientific Diagrams and Equations | Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road 51°29′59″N0°10′45″W / 51.4997°N 0.1792°W | 1960 | John Rattenbury Skeaping | Architectural sculpture | [9] | |||
Mosaic | Royal Albert Hall, South Porch 51°30′02″N0°10′38″W / 51.500481°N 0.177305°W | 2003 | Shelagh Wakely(made by Trevor Caley) | Building Design Partnership (South Porch) | Mosaic | — | Installed on the pediment of the Building Design Partnership's new South Porch of 2003, [10] the 60,000-piece mosaic is inspired by chaos theory [11] and by the existing, Victorian frieze on the Albert Hall's façade. [12] | |
Balustrade | Royal Geographical Society, Exhibition Road 51°30′04″N0°10′29″W / 51.501086°N 0.174730°W | 2004 | Eleanor Long | Craig Downie | Glass balustrade | — | Images of contours, maps and landscapes are etched into the glass panels. [13] [14] | |
Velocity Wave [13] | Imperial College Sports Centre, Prince's Gardens 51°30′00″N0°10′24″W / 51.499968°N 0.173379°W | 2004–2006 | Pat Kaufman | Arup Associates | Glass balustrade | — | The artist consulted scientists at Imperial College researching into the velocity wave patterns of different sporting activities. These patterns were etched into the glass panes at the entrance ramps and stairs to the sports centre, and infilled with resin and gold leaf. The balustrade is lit at night by white LED lights. [15] | |
Statue of Elizabeth II | Royal Albert Hall, South Porch | 2022 | Poppy Field | Statue in niche | Unveiled 11 November 2023 by Charles III and Queen Camilla. Elizabeth II is shown as she would have appeared in the mid-1960s, wearing the Vladimir Tiara and Delhi Durbar Necklace. [16] [17] | |||
Statue of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | Royal Albert Hall, South Porch | 2022 | Poppy Field | Statue in niche | Unveiled 11 November 2023, a pendant to the statue of Elizabeth II. Prince Philip is shown in white tie, wearing several of his orders and military medals, gazing towards the Queen. [16] [18] |
The exterior of the Royal Albert Hall (built in 1867–1871 to the designs of Francis Fowke and Henry Young Darracott Scott) is embellished with a mosaic frieze composed of sixteen separate designs by multiple artists. This was assembled from 800 slabs prepared by attendees of the South Kensington Museum's mosaic class; the terracotta was manufactured by Minton, Hollins and Company. The designs are listed below in anti-clockwise order from the north. [19]
# | Subject | Artist | Designation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Various Countries of the World Bringing in Their Offerings to the Exhibition of 1851 | Edward Poynter | Grade I |
2 | Music | Frederick Richard Pickersgill | |
3 | Sculpture | Frederick Richard Pickersgill | |
4 | Painting | Frederick Richard Pickersgill | |
5 | Princes, Art Patrons and Artists | Edward Armitage | |
6 | Workers in Stone | William Frederick Yeames | |
7 | Workers in Wood and Brick | William Frederick Yeames | |
8 | Architecture | William Frederick Yeames | |
9 | The Infancy of the Arts and Sciences | Frederick Richard Pickersgill | |
10 | Agriculture | Henry Stacy Marks | |
11 | Horticulture and Land Surveying | Henry Stacy Marks | |
12 | Astronomy and Navigation | Henry Stacy Marks | |
13 | A Group of Philosophers, Sages and Students | Edward Armitage | |
14 | Engineering | John Callcott Horsley | |
15 | The Mechanical Powers | Henry Hugh Armstead | |
16 | Pottery and Glassmaking | Frederick Richard Pickersgill | |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bust of Clements Markham | Courtyard | 1921 | F. W. Pomeroy | Bust | Grade II* | [20] | ||
More images | Statue of Ernest Shackleton | Exhibition Road façade 51°30′05″N0°10′29″W / 51.5015°N 0.17479°W | 1927–1932 | Charles Sargeant Jagger | Statue in niche | Grade II* | [21] [22] | |
More images | Statue of David Livingstone | Kensington Gore façade 51°30′06″N0°10′30″W / 51.50161°N 0.17498°W | 1953 | T. B. Huxley-Jones | Statue in niche | Grade II* | [20] |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
More images | The Ancient Melancholy Man | Holland Park | 16th century | ? | — | Statue | — | [31] |
More images | Milo of Croton Trying His Strength | Holland Park | 19th century | After Edme Dumont | — | Sculpture | — | Donated by the Friends of Holland Park in 2003. [32] |
More images | Statue of Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland | Holland Park 51°30′15″N0°12′12″W / 51.5042°N 0.2034°W | 1872 | George Frederic Watts and Joseph Edgar Boehm | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 1926. [33] |
More images | Boy with Bear Cubs | Holland Park | 1902 | John Macallan Swan | — | Statue on pedestal | — | [34] |
More images | Sun Worshipper | The Café, Holland Park | 1910 | Jacob Epstein | — | Limestone relief panel | — | [35] |
More images | Annunciation | Holland Park | 2000 | Andrew Burton | — | Sculpture | — | [36] |
Caesura VI | Holland Park | 2000 | Charles Hadcock | — | Sculpture | — | [37] | |
More images | Tortoises with Triangle and Time | Holland Park | 2000 | Wendy Taylor | — | Sundial with sculpture in bronze | — | [38] |
More images | Tonda | Holland Park | 2014 | Jonathan Loxley | — | Abstract sculpture in honey onyx | — | [39] |
More images | Walking Man | Holland Park | 2014 | Sean Henry | — | Statue | — | [40] |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coat of arms of the National Bank Limited (Azure a harp Or within an orle of bezants) | Pembridge Gardens, on side of Royal Bank of Scotland, Notting Hill Gate 51°30′33″N0°11′47″W / 51.5092°N 0.1965°W | 1950s | ? | Architectural sculpture (relief) | The National Bank was based in Ireland, and had a branch here. Its British operations were eventually acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1985. [41] | |||
Mosaic of Saint Sava | Façade of St Sava's Serbian Orthodox Church, Notting Hill 51°31′01″N0°12′32″W / 51.5169°N 0.2088°W | 1952 | c.Mosaic | — | [42] | |||
More images | Statue of Saint Volodymyr | Holland Park Avenue 51°30′27″N0°12′15″W / 51.5074°N 0.2041°W | 1988 | Leo Mol | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 29 May 1988. Commemorates the 1,000th anniversary of the Christianisation of Kievan Rus'. Later in 1988, another statue of the saint by the same sculptor was erected in Rome. [43] |
Carnival Elephant | Outside Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate 51°30′32″N0°11′45″W / 51.5090°N 0.1957°W | 2003 | Nadim Karam | Sculpture | — | [44] | ||
Two Carnival Figures | On roof of Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate 51°30′32″N0°11′44″W / 51.5090°N 0.1956°W | 2003 | Nadim Karam | Architectural sculptures | — | [44] |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
More images | Statue of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala | Queen's Gate 51°30′05″N0°10′49″W / 51.5013°N 0.1803°W | 1891 | Joseph Edgar Boehm | — | Equestrian statue | Grade II | Originally stood in Waterloo Place; moved to its current site in 1921. A replica of the statue to Napier in Kolkata. The boundary line with the City of Westminster bisects the length of this statue. [6] In 2004 the artist Eleonora Aguiari wrapped the statue in bright red tape as a comment on Britain's imperialist past. [7] |
Bust of Julius Wernher | Royal School of Mines 51°30′00″N0°10′33″W / 51.4999°N 0.1757°W | 1910 | Paul Raphael Montford | Aston Webb | Bust | Grade II | [45] | |
Bust of Alfred Beit | Royal School of Mines 51°30′00″N0°10′33″W / 51.4999°N 0.1758°W | 1910 | Paul Raphael Montford | Aston Webb | Bust | Grade II | [45] | |
War memorial | Outside St Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate 1°29′36″N0°10′42″W / 1.4932°N 0.1783°W | After 1918 | ? | Calvary | [46] | |||
More images | Statue of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell | Baden-Powell House, Queen's Gate 51°29′44″N0°10′45″W / 51.4956°N 0.1793°W | 1961 | Don Potter | Statue | — | Unveiled in 1961 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who was President of the Scout Association. [47] A preparatory model is in the collection of the Scouts Heritage Service in Gilwell Park, Essex. [48] | |
More images | Yalta Memorial ( Twelve Responses to Tragedy ) | Yalta Memorial Garden, Cromwell Road 51°29′45″N0°10′21″W / 51.4957°N 0.1724°W | 1986 | Angela Conner | — | Replaced original version of 1981, destroyed by vandals in 1982. | ||
More images | Statue of Béla Bartók | South Kensington tube station 51°29′37″N0°10′26″W / 51.4937°N 0.17381°W | 2004 | Imre Varga | — | Statue | — | The statue, a copy of one in Budapest, faces the house on Sydney Place where the composer stayed on several visits to London. [47] |
Memorial to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami | Darwin Centre courtyard, Natural History Museum 51°29′47″N0°10′42″W / 51.4963°N 0.1784°W | 2011 | — | Carmody Groarke Architects | Memorial | — | Unveiled 6 July 2011 by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. [49] 4.1m³ of granite with one corner cut away, the largest single block of stone to be transported in Great Britain since the building of Stonehenge. Michael Holland, the memorial's principal organiser, lost his mother, wife and daughter to the tsunami. [50] | |
More images | Statue of Alfred Russel Wallace | Natural History Museum. Originally outside the Darwin Centre 2 building, near the wildlife garden, later moved indoors [51] | 2013 | Anthony Smith | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 7 November 2013, the centenary of Wallace’s death, by David Attenborough. The statue depicts Wallace at the moment of his discovery of the golden birdwing butterfly in the Bacan Islands of Indonesia. [52] |
Fern Diplodocus | Evolution Garden, Natural History Museum | 2024 | — | Factum Arte and Structure Workshop | Sculpture | — | Unveiled 16 July 2024. A bronze cast of the famous specimen Dippy ; the name was chosen by local schoolchildren. [53] [54] | |
Hypsilophodon | Evolution Garden, Natural History Museum | 2024 | — | Sculpture | — | [53] |
Subject | Notes | Type | Location | Date | Sculptor | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Queen Victoria | — | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
Prince Albert | — | Statue | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
Saint George | — | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
Saint Michael | — | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
9 allegorical figures | — | Relief panels | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
Inspiration and Knowledge | — | Statues in niches | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Alfred Drury | [55] |
Truth and Beauty | — | Reliefs in spandrels | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | George Frampton | [55] |
Edward VII | — | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | William Goscombe John | [55] |
Alexandra of Denmark | — | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | William Goscombe John | [55] |
Grinling Gibbons | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | William Silver Frith | [56] |
John Bacon | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | William Silver Frith | [57] |
John Flaxman | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Bertram Pegram | [58] |
Francis Leggatt Chantrey | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Bertram Pegram | [59] |
John Henry Foley | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | James Gamble | [55] |
Alfred Stevens | Sculptor | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | James Gamble | [60] |
William Hogarth | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Reuben Sheppard | [61] |
Joshua Reynolds | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Reuben Sheppard | [62] |
Thomas Gainsborough | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Stanley Nicholson Babb | [63] |
George Romney | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Stanley Nicholson Babb | [64] |
Richard Cosway | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Ernest Gillick | [65] |
J. M. W. Turner | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Ernest Gillick | [66] |
John Constable | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Vincent Hill | [67] |
George Frederic Watts | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Richard Reginald Goulden | [68] |
Frederic, Lord Leighton | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Gilbert Bayes | [69] |
John Everett Millais | Painter | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | James Stevenson ("Myrander") | [55] |
William of Wykeham | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | J. Wenlock Rollins | [70] |
John Thorpe | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | J. Wenlock Rollins | [60] |
Inigo Jones | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Oliver Wheatley | [55] |
Christopher Wren | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Oliver Wheatley | [71] |
William Chambers | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Gilbert Bayes | [72] |
Charles Barry | Architect | Statue in niche | Cromwell Road façade | 1905 | Gilbert Bayes | [73] |
Saint Dunstan | Craftsman | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Frank Lynn Jenkins | [55] |
William Torell | Metalworker | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Frank Lynn Jenkins | [55] |
William Caxton | Printer | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Paul Raphael Montford | [55] |
George Heriot | Goldsmith | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Paul Raphael Montford | [55] |
Huntingdon Shaw | Smith | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Abraham Broadbent | [55] |
Thomas Tompion | Clockmaker | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Abraham Broadbent | [55] |
Thomas Chippendale | Furniture maker | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Albert Hodge | [55] |
Josiah Wedgwood | Potter | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Albert Hodge | [55] |
Roger Payne | Bookbinder | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Arthur George Walker | [55] |
William Morris | Textile designer | Statue in niche | Exhibition Road façade | 1905 | Arthur George Walker | [55] |
Sir William Hamo Thornycroft was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. He was a keen student of classical sculpture and was one of the youngest artists to be elected to the Royal Academy, in 1882, the same year the bronze cast of Teucer was purchased for the British nation under the auspices of the Chantrey Bequest.
Albertopolis is the nickname given to the area centred on Exhibition Road in London, named after Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. It contains many educational and cultural sites. It lies in the former village of Brompton in Middlesex, renamed as South Kensington, split between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, and the area bordered by Cromwell Road to the south and Kensington Road to the north.
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, was an Austrian-born British medallist and sculptor, best known for the "Jubilee head" of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of public works and private commissions. A speciality of Boehm's was the portrait bust; there are many examples of these in the National Portrait Gallery. He was often commissioned by the Royal Family and members of the aristocracy to make sculptures for their parks and gardens. His works were many, and he exhibited 123 of them at the Royal Academy from 1862 to his death in 1890.
Baron Pietro Carlo Giovanni Battista Marochetti was an Italian-born French sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Britain. He completed many public sculptures, often in a neo-classical style, plus reliefs, memorials and large equestrian monuments in bronze and marble. In 1848, Marochetti settled in England, where he received commissions from Queen Victoria. Marochetti received great recognition during his lifetime, being made a baron in Italy and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government.
Sir Thomas Brock was an English sculptor and medallist, notable for the creation of several large public sculptures and monuments in Britain and abroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His most famous work is the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. Other commissions included the redesign of the effigy of Queen Victoria on British coinage, the massive bronze equestrian statue of Edward, the Black Prince, in City Square, Leeds and the completion of the statue of Prince Albert on the Albert Memorial.
London has, alongside New York, been described as the cultural capital of the world. The culture of London concerns the music, museums, festivals, and lifestyle within London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. London is one of the world's leading business centres, renowned for its technological readiness and economic clout, as well as attracting the most foreign investment of any global city.
Sir George James Frampton, was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combining various materials such as marble and bronze in a single piece. While his later works were more traditional in style, Frampton had a prolific career in which he created many notable public monuments, including several statues of Queen Victoria and later, after World War I, a number of war memorials. These included the Edith Cavell Memorial in London, which, along with the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens are possibly Frampton's best known works.
Matthew Noble was a leading British portrait sculptor. Carver of numerous monumental figures and busts including work, memorializing Victorian era royalty and statesmen, displayed in locations such as Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Parliament Square, London.
Frederick William Pomeroy was a prolific British sculptor of architectural and monumental works. He became a leading sculptor in the New Sculpture movement, a group distinguished by a stylistic turn towards naturalism and for their works of architectural sculpture. Pomeroy had several significant public works in London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, notably in Belfast. His work in London includes the figure of Lady Justice (1905–1906) on the dome of the Old Bailey.
Henry Weekes was an English sculptor, best known for his portraiture. He was among the most successful British sculptors of the mid-Victorian period.
Edward Alfred Briscoe Drury was a British architectural sculptor and artist active in the New Sculpture movement. During a long career Drury created a great number of decorative figures such as busts and statuettes plus larger monuments, war memorials, statues of royalty and architectural pieces. During the opening years of the 20th-century he was among the foremost architectural sculptors active in Britain and in that period created the series of works in central London for which he is perhaps now best known. These include the figures on the Old War Office building in Whitehall, elements of the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum and four of the colossal statues on Vauxhall Bridge.