Statue of Robert Raikes, London

Last updated

Robert Raikes
Robert Raikes Statue, Victoria Embankment Gardens - London.jpg
The statue in 2012
Statue of Robert Raikes, London
Artist Thomas Brock
TypeStatue
MediumBronze
Subject Robert Raikes
Location London, WC2
United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°30′34″N0°07′13″W / 51.50934°N 0.12029°W / 51.50934; -0.12029

A statue of Robert Raikes , often regarded as being the founder of Sunday schools, executed by the sculptor Thomas Brock, stands in Victoria Embankment Gardens, London, United Kingdom. It was unveiled by the Earl of Shaftesbury on 3 July 1880 and marked the centenary of the opening of the first Sunday school. The critic Edmund Gosse considered the statue to be "as good as anything of the kind we possess in England". [1] In 1958 it was designated a Grade II-listed building. [2]

The front of the plinth reads: ROBERT RAIKES/ FOUNDER OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS/ 1780/ THIS STATUE WAS ERECTED/ UNDER THE DIRECTION/ OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION/ BY CONTRIBUTIONS/ FROM TEACHERS AND SCHOLARS/ OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN GREAT BRITAIN/ JULY 1880. An inscription below the figure's right foot reads: THOS BROCK SCULPT/ LONDON. 1880. [3]

In 1929 replicas of the statue were cast for erection the following year in Gloucester and Toronto, for the 150th anniversary the following year of opening of the first Sunday school. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Raikes</span> English philanthropist and Anglican layman

Robert Raikes was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was educated at The Crypt School in Gloucester. He was noted for his promotion of Sunday schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamo Thornycroft</span> English sculptor (1850–1925)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Westmacott</span> British sculptor (1775–1856)

Sir Richard Westmacott was a British sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Memorial, London</span> Public memorial by Thomas Brock

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Brock</span> British artist (1847–1922)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henry Foley</span> Irish sculptor (1818–1874)

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 for the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, and of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London and for a number of works in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Frampton</span> British sculptor (1860-1928)

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.

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA) was an organisation established in 1991 to bring together individuals and organisations with an interest in British public sculptures and monuments, their production, preservation and history. It was wound up in the summer of 2020, although members dissatisfied with this decision established a successor organisation with similar objectives, the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, in the autumn of the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Raikes</span> British merchant and banker (1741–1813)

Thomas Raikes was a British merchant particularly trading from London with Russia, a banker and newspaper proprietor. Notably, he was Governor of the Bank of England during the 1797 currency crisis, when the Bank was prohibited by the British Government from paying out in gold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Alfred Pegram</span> British sculptor

Henry Alfred Pegram was a British sculptor and exponent of the New Sculpture movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester</span>

St Mary de Crypt Church, Southgate Street, Gloucester, is an Anglican Church, which was first recorded in 1140 as The Church of the Blessed Mary within Southgate. It is in the Diocese of Gloucester and is located adjacent to the ruins of Greyfriars. It has also been known as Christ Church and St. Mary in the South. St Mary de Crypt is a Grade I listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial to John Whitaker</span> Memorial in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England

The Memorial to John Whitaker is in Roe Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. It stands in the forecourt of the Sunday School that Whitaker established in 1814, and was placed there in 1846 to commemorate the school's fiftieth anniversary. The memorial was sculpted by Alfred Gatley in stone and marble, and contains a bust of Whitaker in a medallion on the south face. The monument is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Captain James Cook, The Mall</span> Statue by Thomas Brock in The Mall, London, England

A bronze statue of Captain James Cook by Thomas Brock is located near Admiralty Arch on the south side of The Mall in London, United Kingdom. The statue was completed in 1914 and is maintained by The Royal Parks. It is mounted on a stone plinth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain</span> Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, officially and popularly known as Eros, is a fountain surmounted by a winged statue of Anteros, located at the southeastern side of Piccadilly Circus in London, England. Moved after the Second World War from its original position in the centre of the circus, it was erected in 1892–93 to commemorate the philanthropic works of The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, the Victorian politician and philanthropist, and his achievement in replacing child labour with school education. The fountain overlooks the south-west end of Shaftesbury Avenue, also named after the Earl.

<i>Boadicea and Her Daughters</i> Sculptural group in Westminster, London

Boadicea and Her Daughters is a bronze sculptural group in London representing Boudica, queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe, who led an uprising in Roman Britain. It is located to the north side of the western end of Westminster Bridge, near Portcullis House and Westminster Pier, facing Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster across the road. It is considered the magnum opus of its sculptor, the English artist and engineer Thomas Thornycroft. Thornycroft worked on it from 1856 until shortly before his death in 1885, sometimes assisted by his son William Hamo Thornycroft, but it was not erected in its current position until 1902.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Kennedy Memorial, London</span> Memorial in London, United Kingdom

A 1965 memorial bust of John F. Kennedy by Jacques Lipchitz stands in the lobby of International Students House on Great Portland Street in London, England, and is visible from the outside through the glass doors. It was moved there in April 2019 from its original location on the Marylebone Road, to the west of Great Portland Street underground station, after it was vandalised in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thames Ditton Foundry</span>

The Thames Ditton Foundry was a foundry in Thames Ditton, Surrey, which operated from 1874 to 1939 and which under various owners produced numerous major statues and monuments as one of the United Kingdom's leading firms of bronze founders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Raikes' House</span>

Robert Raikes' House is an historic 16th century timber-framed town house at 36–38 Southgate Street, Gloucester. It is now used as a public house called the Robert Raikes Inn.

References

  1. 1 2 Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, vol. 14, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 321–3
  2. Historic England. "Statue of Robert Raikes (1066179)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  3. "Statue: Robert Raikes statue". London Remembers. Retrieved 24 May 2015.