Category: statues

Elizabeth Gaskell

(1810-1865)

This is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.  I’m visiting women statues, I’m counting busts in this, and quite frankly, any sculptor listed on the Public Statues and Sculpture Association (PSSA) website, but a memorial tower?  Should I check it out?  Well, reader, by this entry you can guess that I did.  With so few monuments honouring women in history, I guess I have to take all I can get.

And Elizabeth Gaskell is a case in point.  Like Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy who was yesterday’s visit, this Elizabeth too appears to have been rather ignored through time.

Born in London, upon her mother’s death she moved to Knutsford to live with her aunt.  Her early years there were happy, and she used the place as the backdrop to her novels Cranford and the place called Hollingford in Wives and Daughters.

She married Reverend William Gaskell in 1832 and moved to Manchester that same year.  They worked amongst the poor of Manchester during a period of great social and industrial upheaval.  Religion was at the heart of her life, and this drove her strong sense of duty in helping others.  She took on roles as a volunteer teacher and charity worker, whilst writing and raising children.  For the first 16 years of her married life, Elizabeth bore several children.  While four daughters survived, her first child was still born and her only son, William, died at ten months of scarlet fever.  As a distraction from her grief, her husband suggested that she write a novel.  It was out of this sorrow that her first novel Mary Barton was born.  Published anonymously in 1848, the novel scandalised much of Victorian society, partly through its bare account of the grim realities of everyday life and highlighting societal issues in the newly industrialised landscapes.  Her work was deemed unconventional as its sympathies lay so squarely with the working class, but this turned out to be pivotal in their popularity.

Elizabeth was a prolific writer, with 8 novels under her belt alongside shorter works and her biography of Charlotte Bronte which was written as a request from Charlotte’s own father after Charlotte’s death.  She also wrote ghost stories and had work published in Charles Dickens’ magazine Household Words.

The John Ryland’s Library in Manchester (cast your mind back or turn back the pages to Enriqueta Ryland) holds the world’s most important collection of literary manuscripts by Elizabeth Gaskell, including the only complete manuscript of Wives and Daughters – her last and unfinished novel and her celebrated biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.

Oh, and on my previous visit to the Library I get a private viewing of a bust of Elizabeth, hidden away in a side room.  Hopefully it makes up for the blurred and netted shot of the memorial tower.

Licoricia

( ? – 1277)

The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester

Staying in Winchester, on Jewry street stands the wonderful statue of Licoricia and her youngest son Asher at 5 years old.  I start taking the obligatory photos to record my visit and overhear an enthusiastic volunteer taking new students on a tour of the city, glancing at the statue before steering them elsewhere.

I flinch at the vagueness of it as they walk away, but in all honesty I too know nothing about her.  I’ve fitted the visit in on my travels and have done no research.  I figured when time is tight I can just find the position, take a few selfies and study later.  This has its advantages when you have constraints but I’m missing important snippets of information, and wonder if I would appreciate the statue and the journey more. 

Fortunately, The Arc (formerly the Winchester Discovery Centre) has a leaflet.  A highly successful and intelligent Jewish businesswoman, she was tragically murdered in 1277, the details of which are unknown.  The leaflet goes on to give details of the Jewish community in 13th century Winchester and about the sculpture itself – the artist also created the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on coins since 1998.

The tragic end of her life gives real poignancy to her being depicted with her young child, who presumably was forced out of England with the rest of the Jewish community in 1290.  It feels like there is much more to learn and to understand.

https://licoricia.org/

Margaret Thatcher

1925-2013

St Peter’s Hill Green, Grantham

I rope another friend in to a statue visit.  This one is in Grantham which happens to be the birthplace of this particular lady (the statue, not Louise…)

We have entered the height of summer and the day starts with a bright blue sky. Perfect photography weather.  Louise and I arrive early in the town.  Embarrassed to ask for directions for this particular visit, Louise kindly steps in to find the way and we walk down the road past Sir Issac Newton’s monument to find the statue on St Peter’s Hill Green.  High on a plinth stands Margaret Thatcher, aka, ‘The Iron Lady’ who became, in 1979, the first female prime minister in Europe.  A controversial figure (and still to this day – don’t get me started on milk in schools!) She is pictured in the full ceremonial robes worn by the members of the House of Lords.   Her elevated position is something I feel Thatcher would have approved of.  Controversially, the statue was rejected for installation in Parliament Square at a risk of statue saturation/protest/vandalism (pick your story) so subsequently took its place here in May 2022 where reportedly it was egged within hours of its unveiling.

We visit on a peaceful day and I love that I captured Louise in the background of the shots, whether she wanted to be or not….

Nancy Wake

(1912-2011)

Stafford Hotel, St James’s Place, London SW1A

We’ve come across Karen Newman’s work before and will see it again.  Yesterday’s Anayat Noor Khan bust and later Special Agent Violet Szabo.  Today it is Nancy Wake hidden to the side of a bar.  I feel conscious that my casual wear signals that I’m not staying in the hotel as I approach the doorman at the Stafford Hotel, but I’m permitted in and start searching.  I find her in the corner and take in the similarity of Newman’s Khan bust, partly because Wake (and indeed Szabo) are of the same era.  In the World War 2 she joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive where she undertook several dangerous missions in the lead up to D-Day on 6th June 1944.

The American Bar at the Stafford was frequented by Wake where she would enjoy a tipple of gin and tonic and had a reserved bar stool.  In her honour, the bar makes a cocktail named, ‘White Mouse’ – the name given to her by the Gestapo because of her ability to evade capture.

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Twiggy

(1949 – )

Bourdon Place, Mayfair, London SW1

I’m staying in the nation’s capital and determined to get some more statue sightseeing done.  I can travel easily around London so whilst here I want to get in as many as I can.  I’m giving myself a year to see all 128 statues so the city gives me a chance to get ahead of myself – or so I think.

Standing in Bourdon Place, is the model Twiggy.  Born Lesley Lawson but better known by her nickname, she is often touted as the first supermodel and was iconic in the 60’s fashion industry and beyond.  She also has an acting and singing career as well as being an ardent animal rights campaigner.  But Twiggy is not the only sculpture here.  The street holds the photographer Terence Donovan plus an onlooker, thus allowing you to gaze at the model through the photographer’s eyes, but also the shopper passing by. 

You can also stand with Twiggy and take in her view.  It’s a lovely concept, allowing you to flit between the pieces of art, each one giving a different angle to the next.  It is part of the Mayfair Sculpture Trail, https://www.bondstreet.co.uk/art-in-mayfair

with artist Neal French http://www.nealfrench.co.uk/ entitling the work as ‘Three Figures’ in 2012.

Vera Brittain

(1893-1970)

Brampton Park, Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire

It is 8th August – high summer – but there is an air of autumn in the park where this statue is set, as if the trees and plants have had enough of dry hot days and have begun to shed the odd leaf in preparation for darker days.

Vera Brittain was born in Newcastle Under Lyme.  She began English Literature studies at Oxford but as the First World War broke out she signed up as a Voluntary Aid Detachment.  Affected by the loss of loved ones during this time she became involved in the pacifist movement and her writing reflected her thoughts on the futility and tragedy of war.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/vera-mary-brittain

Is this a statue of Vera Brittain?  The nurse on the bench is a memorial to all women who lost loved ones in war but it is a fitting tribute to Brittain and beautifully crafted.

The statue, together with Brittain’s prose on the paving, captures the essence of suffering.  The downward sorrowful gaze of the figure looks down at the note,’The King commands me to assure you of the true sympathy of His Majesty and The Queen in your sorrow’.

The paving reads:-

‘I sat in a tree-shadowed walk called The Brampton and meditated on the War. 

It was one of those shimmering autumn days when every leaf and flower seemed to scintillate with light, and I found it very hard to believe that not far away men were being slain ruthlessly….

It is impossible, I concluded, to find any satisfaction in the thought of the destruction of men, whether they be English, French, German or anything else, seems a crime to the whole march of civilisation.’

Vera Brittain, 1914, from Testament of Youth, 1933.

The park is lovely.  It holds a Museum, Shop and Café and a retro 1987 toilets!  But make sure you rest, and take a seat with the Lady in the Park.

Sculptor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Edwards_(sculptor)

Virginia Woolf

1882-1941

Bust – Tavistock Square, London WC1H

Statue and bench – Richmond Riverside TW9

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman”

Woolf is a writer best known for works such as Mrs Dalloway (1925), To The Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and A Room of One’s Own (1929). 

The sculpture sits on Richmond Riverside.  Woolf was troubled with mental illness for much of her life, leading to her suicide by drowning in the river Ouse, but the sculptor Laury Dizengremel has captured her in happier times and from accounts she enjoyed her time in Richmond where, with her husband, she founded the publishing house Hogarth Press.

The bust in Tavistock Square is cast from a 1931 sculpture by Stephen Tomlin (1901–1937). Unveiled in 2004 it sits in the square where Woolf lived (at number 52) between 1924 and 1939 continuing to write and run Hogarth Press.

Dame Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-Blake

(1865 – 1925)

Tavistock Square, London WC1H

“The path of the just is as the shining light”

Fourth statue out of 128 and still on day one, I’m already starting to feel a little overwhelmed by the task of visiting more statues, as dates, professions and skills are already mingling in my mind.

Born in Chingford, Essex,  Louisa would go on to be one of the first British women to enter the world of modern medicine and the first to obtain the degree of Master of Surgery.

Public Statues and Sculptures Association website tells us she was also a skilled boxer and cricketer https://pssauk.org/woman/test/ so you can imagine her UCAS application form to study medicine made her stand out as a good ‘all rounder’ candidate.

Pioneering in the treatment of cervical and rectal cancers, she later became the very first surgeon of either sex to perform operations for cervical and rectal cancer.  Sadly she was to die of cancer in 1925.

Tavistock Square also hosts a bust of Virgina Woolf – let’s visit her next!

Sculpture Arthur George Walker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_George_Walker

Design by Whitehall Cenotaph creator Edwin Lutyens   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Lutyens

Sarah Siddons

Paddington Green, London W2

    Who knows what Sarah would have made of the view from her statue. She faces the Marylebone Flyover on Harrow Road but she sits gracefully in a leafy park which offers respite from the bustle of the dual carriageway into London.

    Welsh born in 1755 into a family of travelling theatre actors, her profession as a ‘tragedy’ actor meant she took on many high profile roles including Hamlet, but notably that of Lady Macbeth.  She had a successful career before retiring from stage in 1812.

    To the north of the park lies St Mary’s Churchyard where Sarah is buried.  I only find her tomb due to a google search as it is worn and neglected.  Protected with fencing, and erased through time, it is difficult to read the inscription.  Before taking a photo I dutifully remove a plastic coke bottle from one of the vertical spikes surrounding the stone.  Sarah appears to have been long forgotten here, but at least a statue keeps the memory of her alive.

    Mary Seacole

    St Mary’s Terrace, London W2

      Mary turns out to be a surprise find on my way to my first ‘official’ statue…

      Part of three steel portraits, Mary stands with scientist Alan Turing and author Michael Bond (Paddington Bear creator) and was voted for by local people as part of Sustrans’ Portrait Bench 2007 campaign https://www.sustrans.org.uk/.  Assuming Sustrans has more portraits, I could be visiting much more than the original 128 women statues listed by the UK Public Statues of Women list https://pssauk.org/women/.

      Born in 1805, Mary was a business woman who went on to study diseases and nursed in various countries.  At the outbreak of the Crimean war, she was refused a place in the effort to care for the wounded, so she paid her own way and helped first hand on the battlefields.  She returned destitute and died relatively unknown to those outside of Crimean war.  Until recently, history has largely ignored her work, particularly in the light of Florence Nightingale whose military hospital was stationed hundreds of miles from the frontline. https://www.maryseacoletrust.org.uk/

      Mary is also honoured with another statue in London, but more of that later.