Statue

There are 22 statues on the façade of this building. Each is labelled with his (always 'his') surname. There are 12 at the top up against the sky (which don't photograph very well), listed left to right: Galileo, Goethe, La Place, Galen, Cicero, Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes, Justinian, Hunter, Hume, Davy. There are 10 lower on the building: Leibnitz, Cuvier, Linnaeus, Newton, Bentham, Milton, Harvey, Adam Smith, Locke, Bacon. Newton, Bentham, Milton, Harvey represent: Science, Law, Arts and Medicine. The others are in groups representing: ancient culture, illustrious foreigners, and English worthies. British History reveals who is which.  Shakespeare isn't missing - he was given pride of place on the internal staircase.

The building was constructed in 1866-9, as headquarters for the University of London (now in Senate House). For some years it was the Museum of Mankind, an outpost of the British Museum, but was recently acquired by the Royal Academy of Arts. This grand building, by Sir James Pennethorne, goes by the modest name of "6, Burlington Gardens".