Statue of Edward VI (Scheemakers) | |
---|---|
Artist | Peter Scheemakers |
Completion date | 1737 |
Type | Sculpture |
Medium | Bronze |
Subject | Edward VI |
Location | London |
51°29′57″N0°07′10″W / 51.4992°N 0.1195°W | |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Bronze Statue of Edward VI |
Designated | 30 May 1979 |
Reference no. | 1080372 |
The statue of Edward VI by Peter Scheemakers at St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London is one of two statues of the king at the hospital. Both commemorate Edward's re-founding of the hospital in 1551. It was moved to its current location inside the North Wing of the hospital in the 20th century. The sculpture was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1979.
Edward VI was the son of Henry VIII and his third queen, Jane Seymour. Born on 12 October 1537, he succeed his father at the age of nine in 1547 but never attained his majority, dying aged 15 in 1553. [1] During the Reformation St Thomas', as a religious foundation, was deprived of its revenues and estates and was closed in 1540. [2] In 1551, Edward granted a charter for the hospital's refounding. [3]
The origin of St Thomas' Hospital was the sick house attached to the Church of St Mary Overie [4] in Southwark, founded in the 12th century. [5] By the late 17th century, the hospital was in a dilapidated state and Sir Robert Clayton, the hospital's President, employed the architect, and St Thomas' governor, Thomas Cartwright to undertake complete rebuilding. [6] The new buildings, of red brick and in a classical style were completed just after Clayton's death, in 1709. [4] The statue of Edward was erected in a courtyard of the rebuilt complex in 1739. In 1872, following the complete reconstruction of the hospital on a site further up the River Thames at Lambeth, [6] the statue was moved to the new site and has been repositioned subsequently. [7]
The sculptor Peter Scheemakers came from a family of sculptors. Of Flemish origin, both his father and his two sons worked in the profession. [8] He came to London some time before 1720 and made his reputation with the bust of William Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey in 1740. [a] [9] His statue of Edward VI predates that work. [10] In bronze, the effigy shows the king in period dress. The inscription on the plinth records that the cost of the sculpture was met by Charles Toye Esq., Treasurer of the hospital. [11] The sculpture was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1979. [12]
Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influence on the development of modern sculpture in England.
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital and other sites. It is also a member of King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre, and is one of three sites used by King's College London GKT School of Medical Education.
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.
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The equestrian statue of Ferdinand Foch stands in Lower Grosvenor Gardens, London. The sculptor was Georges Malissard and the statue is a replica of another raised in Cassel, France. Foch, appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces on the Western Front in the Spring of 1918, was widely seen as the architect of Germany's ultimate defeat and surrender in November 1918. Among many other honours, he was made an honorary Field marshal in the British Army, the only French military commander to receive such a distinction. Following Foch's death in March 1929, a campaign was launched to erect a statue in London in his memory. The Foch Memorial Committee chose Malissard as the sculptor, who produced a replica of his 1928 statue of Foch at Cassel. The statue was unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 5 June 1930. Designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958, the statue's status was raised to Grade II* in 2016.
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The statue of Charles II stands in the Figure, or Middle, Court of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London. The sculptor was Grinling Gibbons, and the statue was executed around 1680–1682. The king founded the Royal Hospital in 1682 as a home for retired army veterans. The statue is a Grade I listed structure.
The statue of Robert Clayton stands at the entrance to the North Wing of St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London. The sculptor was Grinling Gibbons, and the statue was executed around 1700–1714. Sir Robert was a banker, politician and Lord Mayor of London. As President of St Thomas', he was responsible for the complete rebuilding of the hospital, and associated church in the late 17th century. The statue was designated a Grade I listed structure in 1979.
The statue of Charles James Fox stands at the north end of Bloomsbury Square in the London borough of Camden. Erected in 1816, the sculptor was Richard Westmacott. It commemorates the Whig politician who died in 1806. Fox is shown in the garb of a Roman senator. The statue is a Grade II* listed structure.
The statue of Edward VI by Thomas Cartwright at St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London is one of two statues of that king at the hospital. Both commemorate Edward's re-founding of the institution in 1551. The statue was designed by Nathaniel Hanwell and carved by Thomas Cartwright in 1682, during the rebuilding undertaken by Sir Robert Clayton when President of the hospital. The statue originally formed the centrepiece of a group of figures which adorned the gateway on Borough High Street. It was moved to its current location at the north entrance to the North Wing on Lambeth Palace Road in the 20th century. It was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1979.
The Memorial to Dr Barnardo by George Frampton, at Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge, commemorates the founder of the Barnardo's children's charity. Born in Dublin into a Sephardic Jewish family, Thomas John Barnardo moved to the East End of London in 1866 where he established a chain of orphanages that developed into the Barnardo's charity. He died in 1905 and, in a move unusual for the time, was cremated; his ashes were interred in front of Cairn's House, the original building of his Barkingside children's village. In 1908, a memorial was raised on the site, the sculpture being undertaken by George Frampton, who worked without a fee. The memorial was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1979 and upgraded to II* in 2010.
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