This is a list of public art in Green Park, one of the Royal Parks of London.
Green Park lies between Hyde Park and St James's Park, in the City of Westminster. Much of the present landscaping is the result of remodelling by John Nash in the 1820s, and the park had been cleared of its buildings, dating to the time of Queen Caroline, by 1855.[1] Governments have traditionally been reluctant to situate memorials in the Royal Parks, and there were none in Green Park until the installation of the Canada Memorial in 1994.[2] Since then two further war memorials have been added, with the second (dedicated to the memory of RAF Bomber Command) drawing criticism for "the un-greening of this section of Green Park".[3]
Map of public art in Green Park
| Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates |
Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Gates | Piccadilly 51°30′21″N 0°08′41″W / 51.5057°N 0.1446°W |
c. 1735 | attributed to Jean Montigny | Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington | Gates and piers | Grade II* | Wrought-iron gates with piers in the Palladian style, originally from a house at Turnham Green belonging to Lord Heathfield. When this was demolished in 1837 they were bought for Chiswick House, but in 1897 they were removed to Devonshire House, which was owned by the same family. This in turn was demolished in 1921, after which the gates were moved to their present site.[4] Restored in 2000.[5] |
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Diana Fountain | Near the entrance of Green Park tube station 51°30′23″N 0°08′32″W / 51.5063°N 0.1423°W |
1951 | Estcourt James (Jim) Clack | — | Drinking fountain with sculpture | — | Unveiled 30 June 1954 on the site of an earlier fountain by Sydney Smirke. The new work was a gift of the Constance Fund, a trust fund set up in accordance with the wishes of the artist Sigismund Goetze to commission sculpture for London's parks.[6] The fountain was moved to its current, more prominent position in 2011, when some gilding was added.[7] |
|
Leaves | Green Park tube station, Victoria and Jubilee line platforms | 1979 | June Fraser | — | Tile motif | — | Fraser's tiling scheme in bright red and green replaced (on the Victoria line platforms)[8] an abstract design of 1969 by Hans Unger, representing a bird's-eye view of trees in Green Park.[9] |
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Canada Memorial | Green Park 51°30′10″N 0°08′33″W / 51.5029°N 0.1426°W |
1994 | Pierre Granche | Ove Arup and Partners | Memorial | — | Unveiled 3 June 1994 by Elizabeth II.[10] A pyramid of Canadian granite bisected by a passageway, forming the shape of an arrow pointing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, whence Canadian soldiers sailed for London in order to fight in both world wars. The inscriptions are in English and French.[11] |
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Memorial Gates | Constitution Hill 51°30′09″N 0°08′57″W / 51.5025°N 0.1491°W |
2002 | — | Liam O'Connor | Four stone pillars supporting lamps and, nearby, a chhatri | — | Unveiled 6 November 2002 by Elizabeth II. Inscribed IN MEMORY OF/ THE FIVE MILLION/ VOLUNTEERS FROM/ THE INDIAN/ SUB-CONTINENT/ AFRICA AND/ THE CARIBBEAN/ WHO FOUGHT WITH/ BRITAIN IN THE TWO/ WORLD WARS[12] |
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Sea Strata | Green Park tube station | 2011 | John Maine | Capita Architecture | Frieze | — | The Portland stone cladding of the service buildings is set in bands to suggest strata in a quarry, with enlarged outlines of fossils incised into the stone at eye level, and spiral forms are incised into the granite pavement.[13] |
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Watering Holes | Green Park 51°30′18″N 0°08′47″W / 51.5050°N 0.1465°W |
2012 | Mark Titman | Robin Monotti Architects | Sculptural drinking fountain | — | One of two winners of an international competition to design "a new, top-quality, low-cost, model drinking fountain",[14] the other being the Trumpet fountain installed in Kensington Gardens.[15] |
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RAF Bomber Command Memorial | Green Park 51°30′12″N 0°08′56″W / 51.5033°N 0.1489°W |
2012 | Philip Jackson | Liam O'Connor | Sculptural group inside pavilion | — | Unveiled 28 June 2012 by Elizabeth II. The memorial is classical in style, but its roof is lined with aluminium from a Halifax bomber, behind a stainless steel lattice inspired by the geodesic fuselage construction of Wellington bombers.[16]
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References
edit- ^ "Landscape History: Green Park—The Royal favourite". The Royal Parks. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 49.
- ^ "A memorial too far". The Burlington Magazine. 153 (1304). November 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Devonshire House Gates to Green Park and Gatepiers (Opposite to Number 90 Piccadilly) (1226498)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 560.
- ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Speel, Bob (2011). Sculpture of the Month—October 2011—The Diana Fountain, Green Park. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ Tile Gazetteer—London. Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ^ Ovenden 2013, p. 249.
- ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 48.
- ^ Connolly, Jocelyne. "The Canadian War Memorial Part 3: Public interaction". Art and Architecture. Courtauld Institute of Art. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 36.
- ^ John Maine: Sea Strata. Art in Public. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ About the Competition. The Royal Parks Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
- ^ Watering Holes Drinking Fountain. The Royal Parks Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
- ^ Rayner, Gordon (28 June 2012). "RAF Bomber Command Memorial: After 67 years, the sacrifice of 55,000 airmen is honoured". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
Bibliography
edit- Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09595-1.
- Ovenden, Mark (2013). London Underground by Design. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-1846144172.
- Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Public Sculpture of Britain. Vol. 14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-691-3.
