In 1994, the Department of Planning of the Corporation of London published a small booklet with the title of “Late 20th Century Sculpture in the City of London”:

Whilst there has long been sculpture across the City, it was mainly statues, building decoration, and a number of drinking and decorative fountains, the late 20th century saw a significant increase in the number and diversity of sculpture, with many new works being abstract, rather than the typical “man on a plinth”.

It was the aim of the booklet to highlight this increase in number and diversity of type, and how public sculpture added to the interest and enjoyment of public spaces.

The late 20th century was also a time when large scale development became the norm with City transformation, and the use of sculpture across a development (such as at, in 1994, the recent Broadgate office complex), was part of a developers approach to selling a new development as an attractive place to work.

The City of London, as with much of the rest of London, has long been a rapidly changing and very transitory place. Buildings disappear to be replaced by new, shops, cafes and restaurants open and close, businesses move in then relocate, the 19th century building that was a bank is now a luxury hotel etc.

A work of sculpture has a visual as well as a financial value. Types of sculpture are fashionable when installed, and seem unfashionable just a few decades later. Some sculpture, such as that of Mary Wollstonecraft in Newington Green attract polar opposite views from the day they are unveiled.

Statues of (almost always) men, who were considered heroes at the time, are, many years later, considered either tainted or as villains.

I wondered whether any of these issues applied to the sculpture featured in the booklet, just 31 years later, so decided to trace all the works recorded in the booklet to see if they are still in place, or whether they have been moved, or lost.

Fortunately, to help with tracking them down, the booklet includes a list:

As well as a map:

Split between the two halves of the City. The maps shows that some areas are a desert for late 20th century sculpture, whilst in other areas, such as the new Broadgate development at the top of the following map, there is a large number of works, illustrating the relationship between new development and the installation of new sculpture:

So I set out to find them all, and today’s post is the first in a series over the coming months to locate all 38 works of late 20th century sculpture in the City of London, starting with:

1. Temple Gardens, Lamb Statue, Margaret Wrighton, 1971

The Lamb Statue is of a boy holding a book, and is to commemorate Charles Lamb.

Charles Lamb was a poet and essayist. Born in the Temple at 2 Crown Office Row in 1775 where his father worked in the legal profession. On the death of his father’s employer, the family consisting of Charles, his sister Mary and their mother and father had to leave the house tied with his father’s job and move into cramped lodgings nearby.

After a short spell at the South Sea Company, he moved to the East India Company in 1792, where he would spend the rest of his working life. He was employed as a clerk, a job he did not enjoy.

His first published work was a small collection of sonnets that he provided for a book of poems published by Coleridge in 1796.

But it was not until the 1820s that he achieved a degree of fame when he published a series of essays in the London Magazine under the name of Elia (a name he adopted, allegedly the last name of an Italian man that had also worked at the South Sea Company)

However in many ways he had quite a tragic life which probably influenced his writing.

After the death of his father’s employer, the family were forced to move to cramped lodgings, and Charles and his sister Mary seem to have been responsible for supporting the family, and it was the resulting pressure which probably led to his sister Mary, in a fit of insanity to kill their mother and badly wound their father.

Charles took Mary to an asylum, and to avoid her imprisonment, he agreed to look after her at home, which he did for the rest of his life.

Mary did suffer mental health problems for the rest of her life, but she also published works with Charles, including a retelling of Shakespeare for children, a book which is still published today.

He did not marry. His first proposal of marriage to one Ann Simmons was rejected which led to a short period of what at the time was called insanity, probably what we would now call depression.

His second attempt at marriage, with a proposal to an actress Fanny Kelly was rejected, probably because she could not contemplate a life which involved looking after Mary.

The boy is holding a book, with the quotation “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once”, taken from Lamb’s essay on the “Old Benchers of the Inner Temple”.

The statue was the work of Margaret Wrightson, who was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1877. She studied at the Royal College of Art, and the majority of her work was figurative sculpture, with works consisting of portrait busts and heads.

The statue was created and installed at the Temple in 1928, however it was stolen in 1970, perhaps because of the value of the lead of which the work was made. A fibreglass copy was made and placed in the gardens in 1971.

Given that the work dates from 1928, it seems strange that it is included in a listing of late 20th sculpture in the City of London, however the fibreglass replacement does fall within the late 20th century timings, although rather strange given that it is a copy.

It did though provide an excuse to visit Inner Temple Gardens on a lovely spring day.

The statue is within the hedged ring in the photo below, on the right hand side of the circle:

The long path running along the south of the gardens, between the gardens and the Embankment on the right:

At the eastern end of this long path is another work, which is not included in the listing, probably because this is a lead replica of the “Wrestlers”, with the first century original being found in the Uffizi in Florence:

Inner Temple Gardens are well worth a visit, and are usually open Monday to Friday, between 12:30 and 3 p.m.:

My next stop was at:

2. Fetter Lane / New Fetter Lane, John Wilkes, James Butler, 1988

John Wilkes was one of the major figures in 18th century political life, and he was also a Lord Mayor of the City of London.

He was active in so many ways that a book is needed to cover the breadth and depth of his life, and one was indeed published in June of last year: Champion of English Freedom: The Life of John Wilkes, MP and Lord Mayor of London.

A well as a Lord Mayor of the City where his statue now stands, he was also an MP, magistrate, author and soldier. He was a prisoner in the Kings Bench Prison after being found guilty on charges of libel.

Born in Clerkenwell in 1725, he died in 1797 in his house at Grovesnor Square. His reputation in later life had suffered due to his involvement in the Gordon Riots, where Wilkes was in charge of soldiers who were defending the Bank of England from the rioters, and as part of his defence of the Bank, he ordered the defending soldiers to fire into the crowd.

This action was seen as an act in support of the Government rather than the common people.

On the rear of the plinth are the following words: “This Memorial Statue Was Erected By Admirers And Unveiled in October 1988 by Dr James Cope”.

Dr James Cope commissioned the statue, and money for the statue was raised from present day supporters of Wilkes.

It was created by London born sculptor, James Butler, who died in 2022 at the age of 90., and there is a comprehensive website covering his life and work to be found, here.

3. 2 Dorset Rise, George and the serpent, Michael Sandle

The order in which the sculptures are numbered in the list is not always the best order to walk, and I found number 3 – George and the serpent – after leaving site number 1 – Temple Gardens.

Walking along Tudor Street, I caught a glimpse of the next work, a short distance up Dorset Rise:

This is George and the serpent, a rather stylised version of St. George, on a horse, about to strike a dragon which spirals around a vertical plinth of metal rods:

There is no date for this work in the City of London booklet, however it seems to date from 1988, and was commissioned by Mountleigh Group as part of the surrounding office development. It was the winning entry in a competition held by Unilever who at the time occupied the offices.

Unilever have long left these offices, and George and the serpent now sits in the courtyard of a Premier Inn:

George and the serpent is the work of Michael Sandle, who was born in Weymouth, Dorset in 1936.

Another of his London works is the Seafarers’ Memorial outside the offices of the International Maritime Organization on the Albert Embankment. This work has a similar bold style as George and the serpent:

International Seafarers Memorial, Albert Embankment, taken Friday, 6 March, 2020
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Robin Sones – geograph.org.uk/p/6577613

The plinth sites within a circular well, and I beleive the George and the serpent operated as a water feature as well as a sculpture.

In the following photo you can see the circular well. Just visible is a pipe leading from below the interior of the plinth to one or more of the metal poles, some of which I believe are hollow to take water up into the sculpture. To the right in the photo are the brass tongues of the dragon, out of which poured water:

There cannot be that many Premier Inns with such an impressive work of art in the courtyard:

My next stop was in Fleet Place, where there were two sculptures in the listing and on the map. The first was:

4. Fleet Place, Man with pipe, Bruce McClean, 1993

However Man with pipe by Bruce McClean could not be found. Fleet Place has had some considerable redevelopment over the last few decades, so whether these changes resulted in the lost of the sculpture, I do not know?

I walked around the square and streets leading onto Fleet Place but could find no trace, and subsequently no record of where it could be, whether I missed the sculpture, or what may have happened to it.

Fleet Place on the day of my visit:

But I did have better luck with the second work listed as being in Fleet Place:

5. Fleet Place, Echo, Stephen Cox, 1993

Fleet Place consists of a central square and a pedestrianised route leading up to Holborn Viaduct, alongside the City Thameslink station. Along the route up to Holborn Viaduct, I found “Echo” by Stephen Cox:

Echo consists of two headless torsos facing each other, and the gender of each figure is rather vague.

As well as Great Britain, Stephen Cox works in India, Italy and Egypt, and the stone used for “Echo” was Indian Granite. A plaque set into the surround dates the work to 1993, and that it was commissioned by Broadgate Properties, if I remember correctly, this was soon after the City Thameslink station was completed, and as part of the redevelopment of the buildings surrounding the station.

6. Queen Victoria Street, Baynard House, Seven ages of man, Richard Kindersley, 1980

The “Seven Ages of Man” is a wonderful sculpture, but is now in a very dilapidated area, sitting within an open space, part of the public walkway between Blackfriars Station and Queen Victoria Street, above street level, and surrounded by British Telecom’s Baynard House:

The Seven Ages of Man is by Richard Kindersley, and as well as a sculptor of works such as that at Baynard House, he is also a typeface designer and stone letter carver, and if you have ever walked down the stairs at Canning Town Jubilee Line Station, you will see his lettering telling a local history story swirling along the concrete walls to the side of the stairs.

A plaque on the small brick wall opposite the sculpture tells us that the work was unveiled by Lord Miles of Blackfriars on the 23rd of April 1990. Lord Miles was the actor Bernard Miles, who. along with his wife Josephine Wilson, was the driving force behind the Mermaid Theatre which opened a short distance away alongside Puddle Dock (see this post for the story of the Mermaid).

The theme of the work, the Seven Ages of Man is taken from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” where the following extract tells the story of the seven ages:

Baynard House and the surrounding area, including the Mermaid Theatre are expected to be significantly redeveloped at some point in the coming years, so as well as the Seven Ages of Man, I think it would also be possible to put together the Seven Ages of City Sculpture (with apologies to Shakespeare):

1. The planned new development, the concept for a work of art, the design competition and commission
2. The design is complete and work starts
3. The new sculpture is installed in its new location, and heralded as a focal point for this new place in the City
4. The sculpture is now part of the day to day environment
5. The sculpture becomes so familiar to those who live and work in the area that it becomes almost invisible as they pass
6. The sculpture and / or the area in which it is located becomes dated, out of fashion, or lacks maintenance and falls into disrepair
7. The area around the sculpture is redeveloped, the sculpture disappears

The Seven Ages of Man is certainly at stage 6 in my list above, hopefully after redevelopment, it will still be part of the new area between Queen Victoria Street and the Thames.

7. Paternoster Square, Paternoster, Elizabeth Frink, 1975

I usually try and avoid having people in photos published on the blog, however this photo, taken on a warm spring day, shows how the placement of a work can become part of the life of a place, with people clustering around to meet. Paternoster is somewhere between ages 4 and 5 in my list above:

With the colour of the stone used for the plinth, Paternoster looks as if it is part of the latest development of the area north of St. Paul’s Cathedral, however it dates from the previous 1960s office development on the same site.

Trafalgar House commissioned the work from Elisabeth Frink, and it was installed on the northern side of the original development in 1975, and unveiled by Yehudi Menhuin.

When the 1960s development was demolished, Paternoster was moved in 1997 to a position on London Wall, near the Museum of London, and restored to its current location in 2003, on a new plinth to match the surrounding buildings.

The name Paternoster is curious. The work is in Paternoster Square, and prior to wartime bombing and post war site clearance, Paternoster Row once ran through the square, east to west, and the statue is just a few feet north of the original router of the street.

Paternoster Row in the late 19th century – hard to believe that this street once ran through Paternoster Square:

Harben in a Dictionary of London gives the source of the name Paternoster Row as from “Paternosters were turners of beads and lived here, hence the name of the street”.

So why is the sculpture of a shepherd and sheep rather than the traditional paternosters that Harben describes as turners of beads?

The Paternoster Square website gives a couple of explanations, including that Elizabeth Frink was inspired by a stay in Cervennes, a mountainous region in France, populated with sheep and their shepherds, alternatively inspiration from Picasso’s 1944 bronze, Man with Sheep, or perhaps the nearby cathedral inspired a deliberate confusion between pater of Paternoster (Our Father) and pastor (shepherd).

The Paternoster Square website gives the name of the sculpture as “Sheep and Shepherd”, and does not mention the name Paternoster, with the word Paternoster only used in the context given in the paragraph above.

What ever the true source of Frink’s inspiration for the work, it blends in really well in Paternoster Square, and provides a focal point for those who use the square.

Although the focus of this post is late 20th century sculpture, I did pass some new works on my walk between those listed in the City of London booklet, one of these was in the overall Paternoster Square development, where Paternoster Lane meets Ave Maria Lane:

This is “Paternoster Vents” by Thomas Heatherwick.

It was the result of a requirement to provide cooling for an electricity substation in the ground below. Surrounding the work are air vents embedded in the pavement, these draw in cool air.

The two parts of the overall work then support two tall warm air vents. Each of the parts of the overall work consists of sixty three identical isosceles triangles of glass bead blasted stainless steel.

Paternoster Vents was installed in 2002. It is surprising how many recent statues, sculpture etc. across London are there to provide cooling to infrastructure, car parks, underground stations and tunnels etc. and to do so in a way that enhances the streets above.

8. St. Paul’s Churchyard, Becket, E. Bainbridge Copnall, 1973

Enter St. Paul’s Churchyard from the south east, look to your left, and you will see Becket:

Becket, by E Bainbridge Copnall is Grade II listed, and shows Thomas à Becket, who was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral on the 29th of December 1170.

In Copnall’s work, he has fallen to the ground, as the four knights surrounding him are about to strike their fatal blows:

The work is of fibreglass resin and was originally installed in 1973, in the south west of the churchyard, having been commissioned by the City of London Corporation. The sculpture was damaged during the storm of 1987, restored, but then was vandalised in 2001, when it was moved to its current location, which is within a quieter part of the churchyard.

Edward Bainbridge Copnall  was born in 1903 in South Africa and trained in London. More of his works can be seen in London where he was responsible for the relief sculptures on the Adelphi.

He died in 1973, so Becket was probably one of his last works, and he certainly captured the final moments of Thomas à Becket:

Not far from the Becket sculpture is another not listed in the City of London pamphlet, as it dates from 2012, a bust of John Donne:

John Donne was born in nearby Bread Street in around 1571and died in 1631.

He was a poet (and his works are still in print), an MP, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and many more roles in a complex life. It is from John Donne that we get the phrase “No Man is an Island”.

As with John Wilkes earlier in the post, John Donne requires a whole book to cover his life, and a couple of years ago Katherine Rundell published Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, and back in 2007 there was Donne: The Reformed Soul. Both excellent books that tell the story of a fascinating life that spanned the 16th and 17th centuries.

The work is by Nigel Boonham, and a clever part of the overall installation is within the stones surrounding the base of the plinth, which has been divided up into four segments for the four points of the compass, each highlighting a key part of John Donne’s life, for example to the east is his birth place in Bread Street, and to the west is Lincoln’s Inn where he was a Reader:

To the north of the cathedral, still in the churchyard is:

9. St. Paul’s Churchyard, John Wesley, J. Adams Acton, 1991

The statue of John Wesley dates from 1988 (although the City pamphlet gives a date of 1991 which may have been when it was unveiled), however in reality it is much older as it is a bronze cast from an early 19th century marble statue in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.

John Wesley’s life spanned the whole of the 18th century, as he was born in 1703 and died in 1791. He was the main founder of the Methodist movement.

He also has a plaque in Aldersgate Street, recording a place and an event where he “Felt his heart strangely warmed”.

Apparently the statue is 5 foot 1 inches tall, mirroring Wesley’s real life height.

The statue is in St. Paul’s churchyard as, despite being at odds with the established Church of England, he did preach a few times in the cathedral.

As with a couple of others in this post, statues and sculptures do serve as a gateway into further research, by prompting more reading about the individual, and for Wesley, this book tells a good story.

10. Postman’s Park, Minotaur, Michael Ayrton, 1973

Michael Ayrton’s “Minotaur” was recorded in the City of London booklet as to be found in Postman’s Park, however despite a good walk around the park, I could not find the sculpture:

The reason being is that it is now just north of London Wall in the gardens between the ruins of the Elsyng Spital Church Tower and Salters’ Hall. I will cover the Minotaur when I walk through that area for the rest of the sculptures listed in the booklet.

11. Old Change Court, Fireman’s War Memorial, John W. Mills, 1991

The Fireman’s War Memorial was listed as being in Old Change Court, however today you will find it a very short distance to the west at the northern end of Sermon Lane:

The memorial was the work of the Firefighters Memorial Charitable Trust and was initially set up as a memorial to the firefighters who worked across the streets of London during the Blitz, and then extended nationally to cover the service of all firefighters during the Second World War.

It was unveiled by the Queen Mother on the 4th of May, 1991 at its original location at the northern end of Old Change Court.

The sculpture shows two firefighters working a hose, with their legs spread to the take the force of the water blasting from the hose, whilst a sub-officer is waving his arms, attracting others to assist.

The sub-officer is believed to be modelled on C.T. Demarne who was the Chief Fire Officer of West Ham Fire Station. Demarne had the original idea for a firefighters’ memorial, and this is located in the Hall of Remembrance at the Headquarters of the London Fire Brigade. Out of this memorial came the plan for the larger, public memorial to those who died in the Blitz.

It then become a memorial to all firefighters who died in the line of duty, the height of the plinth was increased, and the memorial was moved to its current location at the top of Sermon Lane and rededicated on the 16th of September 2003 by the Princess Royal.

There are currently a total of 1,192 names inscribed around the plinth of the memorial, which includes the a relief of two women firefighters (with the roles of Despatch Rider and Incident Recorder), and the names of 23 women who died:

The sculptor was John William Mills, who was also responsible for the Monument to the Women of World War II which can be found in Whitehall. The monument was originally commissioned by the Founder Master of the Guild of Firefighters and had the title “Blitz” and used a quote from Winston Churchill to describe firefighters of the war as “Heroes with grimy faces”:

The following photo is looking south along Old Change Court today. The most recent incarnation of the boarded up building was as the Old Change Bar and Restaurant, now closed, possibly as a result of the Covid period and post-covid working from home reducing the number of potential customers:

Old Change Court had a second entry in the City of London booklet, but there was no sign of the work, but I did find it close by.

12. Old Change Court, Icarus, Michael Ayrton, 1973

Walk down Old Change Court, turn left and you will find Distaff Lane Garden:

Distaff Lane Garden is a relatively new garden in the City, having opened in 2018. What I did find interesting is that it is the first time I have seen the use of What Three Words as a means of locating a City garden:

What Three Words in a really useful application for precisely specifying a location to within a few feet. What Three Words has divided the world into 3 metre squares, with each square being given a unique three word combination.

The idea being that it is easier to tell someone three simple words to tell them where you are, rather than trying to describe the location, remember street names, map references, longitude and latitude etc.

There is a mobile phone app and website, and it is also used by emergency and rescue services – it is a really useful service, and free to use.

Distaff Lane Gardens is at “memo.courier.showed”, and at this link is the What Three Words website showing the location based on these three words.

Michael Ayrton’s work Icarus can be seen through the gates into the garden, and this is the view of Icarus with the church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey in the background:

As well as Icarus, Ayrton’s other work in the City was the Postman’s Park Minotaur, now relocated near London Wall.

He had a long running fascination with the story of Daedalus, Icarus, and the Minotaur, and these characters feature in a number of his works. Icarus was the son of Daedalus, and the myth of Icarus comes from his attempt to fly using wings made by his father out of bird’s feathers, leather straps and beeswax.

Before using the wings, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly to close to the sea, otherwise the feathers would get wet, and not to fly to close to the sun, as the heat would melt the beeswax.

He ignored the warning flew too close to the sun, the beeswax melted and Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.

As well as a sculptor, Michael Ayrton was also an illustrator, painter and stage designer.

Born in London in 1921, he died relatively young in 1975 at the age of 54 – a year after Icarus was unveiled in Old Change Court.

There is another version of Icarus to be seen at the Royal Airforce Museum London at Colindale.

That is the first 12 out of the 38 listed in the City of London booklet on late 20th sculpture.

Out of these 12, it is only “Fleet Place, Man with pipe, Bruce McClean” that I could not find anything about. Whether it is hidden somewhere around Fleet Place that I missed, relocated, or lost, so a good survival record for the other 11, although the Seven Ages of Man is now in an unvisited, poorly maintained and dilapidated area, which if and when redeveloped, will hopefully be moved to a more prominent and long term location.

I will carry on working through the list in a future post.

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