This is a list of public art in Westminster , a district in the City of Westminster, London.
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
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bust of Emery Hill | United Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row | 1675 | c.Anon. | R. R. Arntz (rebuilding) | Bust | Grade II | [5] | |
More images | Statue of Queen Anne | Outside 13 Queen Anne's Gate | 1708 at latest | Francis Bird | Statue | Grade I | [6] | |
More images | Statue of George Canning | Parliament Square 51°30′04″N0°07′40″W / 51.5010°N 0.1277°W | 1832 | Richard Westmacott | — | Statue | Grade II | Erected 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″N0°07′32″W / 51.4991°N 0.1256°W | 1856 | Carlo Marochetti | — | Equestrian statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 Memorial | Broad Sanctuary 51°29′58″N0°07′45″W / 51.4995°N 0.1292°W | 1861 | John Richard Clayton and John Birnie Philip | George Gilbert Scott | Column with sculpture | Grade II | Commemorates 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″N0°07′29″W / 51.4961°N 0.1248°W | 1865–1866 | Thomas Earp (figures now lost) | Samuel Sanders Teulon with Charles Buxton | Drinking fountain | Grade 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 Derby | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′38″W / 51.5008°N 0.1273°W | 1874 | Matthew Noble | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 Palmerston | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′38″W / 51.5009°N 0.1271°W | 1876 | Thomas Woolner | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 Baronet | Parliament Square 51°30′02″N0°07′38″W / 51.5005°N 0.1273°W | 1877 (unveiled) | Matthew Noble | — | Statue | Grade II | Initially 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 Palmer | United Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row | 1882 | c.Anon. | R. R. Arntz | Bust | Grade II | [15] | |
More images | Statue of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield | Parliament Square 51°30′02″N0°07′38″W / 51.5006°N 0.1273°W | 1883 | Mario Raggi | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 Calais | Victoria Tower Gardens 51°29′51″N0°07′30″W / 51.4975°N 0.1249°W | 1884–1889 | Auguste Rodin | Eric Gill (lettering) | Sculptural group | Grade I | Unveiled 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 Cromwell | New Palace Yard 51°30′00″N0°07′33″W / 51.4999°N 0.1259°W | 1899 | William Hamo Thornycroft | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 I | St Margaret's Church | 20th century? | Anon. (after Anthony van Dyck) | W. A. Forsyth (niche) | Bust | Grade I | [21] | |
War memorial | Churchyard of St John's, Smith Square, facing Dean Stanley Street 51°29′46″N0°07′36″W / 51.4960°N 0.1268°W | after 1918 | ? | — | Cross | — | Commemorates the 120 parishioners of the church who died in World War I. [22] | |
More images | Statue of Abraham Lincoln | Parliament Square 51°30′02″N0°07′40″W / 51.5006°N 0.1278°W | 1920 (unveiled) | Augustus Saint-Gaudens | McKim, Mead & White | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 kid | Victoria Tower Gardens 51°29′42″N0°07′29″W / 51.4951°N 0.1248°W | 1923 | Miss Harris assisted by Charles Sargeant Jagger | — | Drinking fountain with sculptural groups | — | Given 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 Pankhurst | Victoria Tower Gardens 51°29′52″N0°07′31″W / 51.4979°N 0.1253°W | 1930 | Arthur George Walker | Herbert Baker (1930); Peter Hills (1959) | Statue with side screens and piers | Grade 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 England | Church House, Dean's Yard | c. 1936–1940 | Charles Wheeler | Herbert Baker and A. T. Scott | Architectural sculpture | Grade II | [26] | |
More images | Statue of George V | Old Palace Yard 51°29′56″N0°07′35″W / 51.4990°N 0.1263°W | 1947 (unveiled) | William Reid Dick | Giles Gilbert Scott | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 Smuts | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′37″W / 51.5009°N 0.1269°W | 1956 | Jacob Epstein | possibly Charles Holden | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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 1962–65 | Abingdon Street Gardens (College Green) 51°29′53″N0°07′34″W / 51.4980°N 0.1260°W | 1962–1965 | Henry Moore | — | Sculpture | Grade 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 Heart | Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Horseferry Road | 1964 | Arthur Fleischmann | Harry G. Clacy | Architectural sculpture | — | [31] | |
Man and Woman | Albany House, Petty France | 1964 | Willi Soukop | D. E. Harrington | Architectural sculpture | — | [32] | |
More images | Statue of Winston Churchill | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′35″W / 51.5008°N 0.1265°W | 1973 | Ivor Roberts-Jones | — | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 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] |
Crucifixion | College Garden, Westminster Abbey | 1974 | Enzo Plazzotta | — | Sculptural group | — | A 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 | New Palace Yard 51°30′02″N0°07′31″W / 51.5005°N 0.1252°W | 1977 | Walenty Pytel | — | Fountain with sculpture | — | Unveiled 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 Growth | Rowan House, Greycoat Street | 1986–1987 | Peter Thursby | Renton Howard Wood Levine | Relief | — | Awarded the Royal Society of British Sculptors' silver medal in 1987. [36] | |
Memorial to Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and War | Broad Sanctuary 51°29′59″N0°07′43″W / 51.4996°N 0.1286°W | 1996 | ? | — | Plaque in pavement | — | Unveiled 10 October 1996 by Elizabeth II. [37] | |
Fountain | St John's Gardens | 2001 | ? | ? | Fountain | — | A 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 | Old Palace Yard 51°29′56″N0°07′34″W / 51.4990°N 0.1261°W | 2002 | Quentin Newark(of Atelier Works) | Incisive Lettering (lettering) | Analemmatic sundial in pavement | — | Parliament'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] | |
Screens | St John's Gardens | 2005 | Wendy Ramshaw | — | Metalwork grilles | — | 12 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 Mandela | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′35″W / 51.5008°N 0.1265°W | 2007 | Ian Walters | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 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 Dwyfor | Parliament Square 51°30′03″N0°07′36″W / 51.5008°N 0.1267°W | 2007 (unveiled) | Glynn Williams | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 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 Court | Outside the Supreme Court at Middlesex Guildhall | 2009 | ? | — | Inscription on curved wall | — | The 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 I | Little Dean's Yard | 2010 | Matthew Spender | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 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 Vincent | Vincent Square | 2010 | Karen Newman | — | Plaque with relief sculpture | — | Commissioned 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 sculptures | Abbey Orchard Estate courtyard 51°29′52″N0°07′52″W / 51.4978°N 0.1311°W | 2012 | Sarah Staton | — | Sculptures | — | Gigantic 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 Gandhi | Parliament Square 51°30′02″N0°07′38″W / 51.5006°N 0.1272°W | 2015 | Philip Jackson | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 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 Fawcett | Parliament Square | 2018 | Gillian Wearing | — | Statue | — | Unveiled 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 station | 2022 | Larry Achiampong | Installation | — | The London Underground roundel in the pan-African colours, with 54 stars representing the countries of Africa. [52] |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Statue of Saint Maximilian Kolbe | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Andrew Tanner | Statue in niche | Grade I | [53] | ||
Statue of Manche Masemola | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [54] | ||
Statue of Archbishop Janani Luwum | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [55] | ||
Statue of Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [56] | ||
Statue of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [57] | ||
Statue of Archbishop Óscar Romero | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [58] | ||
Statue of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [59] | ||
Statue of Esther John | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [60] | ||
Statue of Lucian Tapiedi | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [61] | ||
Statue of Wang Zhiming | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [62] |
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates | Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saint Peter , Saint Paul , Faith and Hope | Formerly in College Garden, Westminster Abbey (removed for conservation, to be displayed in the Triforium by mid-2018) [63] 51°29′52″N0°07′38″W / 51.4977°N 0.1273°W | 1686 | Grinling Gibbons and Artus Quellinus III | — | Statues | Grade II | Four 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] |
Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contains twelve statues of statesmen and other notable individuals.
The Victoria Memorial is a monument to Queen Victoria, located at the end of The Mall in London by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled on 16 May 1911, though it was not completed until 1924. It was the centrepiece of an ambitious urban planning scheme, which included the creation of the Queen’s Gardens to a design by Sir Aston Webb, and the refacing of Buckingham Palace by the same architect.
Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London, adjacent to the Victoria Tower, at the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, between Millbank and the river. It forms part of the Thames Embankment.
John Henry Foley, often referred to as J. H. Foley, was an Irish sculptor, working in London. He is best known for his statues of Daniel O'Connell in Dublin, and of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London and for a number of works in India.
A statue of William Shakespeare, by the sculptor Giovanni Fontana after an original by Peter Scheemakers, has formed the centrepiece of Leicester Square Gardens in London since 1874.
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British suffragettes. It stands at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens, south of Victoria Tower at the southwest corner of the Palace of Westminster. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.