Plaque

Cheyne Walk heads - More and Erasmus

No inscription remains legible but we believe we've found the painting used as the model for the head on the right and it's Erasmus.  So we are plumping for: More on the left and Erasmus on the right.

Site: Cheyne Walk - friendship (2 memorials)

SW3, Cheyne Walk, 15

Wikipedia has a page about this house which name-drops many celebrities but none of the 4 depicted in these sculptures. The sundial between these two double portrait plaques is headed "Lead kindly light", words from a Cardinal Newman hymn. Built c.1718 this house is Listed but the entry does not mention any of the items on the front elevation.

Then we found a detailed 2004 archaeological survey of the house which tells us that the portrait heads do not appear in a photograph of the house in the Survey of London (1909, plate 70) so they were erected after 1909, and also suggests that Lord Courtney erected them. That's the Liberal politician Lord Leonard Courtney of Penwith (1832-1918). He was in the house from about 1883 until his death and then his widow stayed until her death in 1929.

We then found the book Life of Lord Courtney by G. P. Gooch which says, in Courtney's widow's words, talking about the changes her husband made to this house: "Then came the sundial — an old one fixed on the front of the house. The motto on it was his choice — ' Lead, kindly light.' But his biggest venture was the two pairs of sculptured heads — Sir Thomas More and Erasmus on one panel, Carlyle and Mazzini on the other."

So that's the heads identified. Only two questions remain: who sculpted them? and why these 4 men rather than anyone else?  We cannot discover the name of the sculptor but the other question turns up an interesting result.

From Byronico we learn that Mazzini lived in a number of different Chelsea addresses at different times (although Cheyne Walk itself does not figure). He was good friends with Thomas Carlyle and would sometimes stay overnight at 24 Cheyne Row. Thomas More lived in Chelsea as is well-documented on about 6 other memorials to him in the area, and Erasmus was a good friend who stayed with him when in London.

So each panel shows the patriarch of a Chelsea household alongside a very good, foreign, friend who was often"put up" in that household.  This pair of paired portraits commemorates, not just 4 illustrious men of history, but also long-lasting male friendship across national borders.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Cheyne Walk heads - More and Erasmus

Subjects commemorated i

Desiderius Erasmus

Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Born Rotterdam, date...

Read More

Sir Thomas More

Born Milk Street. In conflict with Henry VIII over religion he was imprisoned...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Cheyne Walk heads - More and Erasmus

Also at this site i

Cheyne Walk heads - Carlyle and Mazzini

Cheyne Walk heads - Carlyle and Mazzini

Both Mazzini and Carlyle are almost always depicted with a beard but finally ...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Mazawattee Tea Warehouse

Mazawattee Tea Warehouse

EC3, Tower Hill Terrace, Tower Vaults

This large plaque is laid into the ground in the middle of the shopping centre.

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Madge Gill - plaque

Madge Gill - plaque

E17, Walthamstow High Street, 71

Madge Gill, née Maud Eades, artist (1882 - 1961) lived here between 1882 - 1890. Waltham Forest Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Edward de Vere's mansion

Edward de Vere's mansion

N16, Stoke Newington Church Street, 171-3

There was a mediaeval mansion on this site, built in the 14th century for Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. In 1717 Edward Newens, a local ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Capt Simmon Latutin GC

Capt Simmon Latutin GC

NW1, North Villas, 20

Installed shortly before 24 January 2022.

War dead | WW2
1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Gaius Classicianus

Gaius Classicianus

EC3, Trinity Place

A London Inheritance has a 1947, or thereabouts, photo of "London's earliest inscribed monument" as it was then, in two sections incorpor...

3 subjects commemorated

Previously viewed

John Constable - Lower Terrace

John Constable - Lower Terrace

NW3, Lower Terrace, 2

John Constable, 1776 - 1837, artist, lived here in the summers of 1821 - 1822. Erected by the Hampstead Plaque Fund

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Sapper John Edward Alfred Ansley

Sapper John Edward Alfred Ansley

John Edward Alfred Ansley was born on 7 September 1895 in Battersea. He was the second of at least eleven children of Alfred Ansley (1872-1948) and Mary Ansley née Quartley (1866-1945). His birth w...

Person, Armed Forces, Turkey

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Fawcett frieze - 21, Baldock

Fawcett frieze - 21, Baldock

SW1, Parliament Square

Most statues have plinths, which often carry the identity of the statue but little more. The plinth for this Millicent Fawcett statue is ...

1 subject commemorated
Farhad Miah

Farhad Miah

Student. Participant in the creation of the Will Crooks mural.

Person, Art

1 memorial
Sir Bernard Spilsbury

Sir Bernard Spilsbury

Forensic pathologist.  Born Leamington Spa, son of a manufacturing chemist.  He was a pioneer in the science of determining the cause of death by examining a corpse and gave evidence in many cases ...

Person, Law, Medicine

1 memorial