Bust

Drill Hall - head 2 - Scots soldier

Erection date: 1882

Site: Drill Hall - W1 (7 memorials)

W1, Chenies Street, Drill Hall

In the spandrels above the entrance door: "Bloomsbury Rifles Pro Patria Semper" ('for my country always'). The technique used for this lettering is new to us, and has weathered, or aged, very badly.

The ends of the label, or drip, window mouldings are decoratively finished with individual sculpted heads. The six on the first floor are small and not too interesting but the six on the ground floor are so delightful we could not let them go, even though their status as memorials is, at best, tangential. We've numbered them left to right and identified a character for each one, except number 4. Do look at them in the larger format - the facial expressions are individual and the moustaches long.

Discussing head 4 with Mike Patterson of London Historians he points out that, in common with other infantry regiments, the Bloomsbury Rifles cap badge incorporated the Maltese cross so that would explain the symbol on the cap. He agrees that, as with 1 and 2, 4 has a local British look but we can't pin it down. Welsh would be an obvious candidate but we can find no images to confirm this association. Of course it could just be bog standard English.

See the foundation stone page for information about the building and its architect. It remained in use by military groups until 1960. It is now RADA Studios.

Londonist have posted a Museum of London video about this drill hall.

The Jewish Legion HQ was at 22 Chenies Street - two buildings to the east.

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

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Drill Hall - head 2 - Scots soldier

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

01 Croydon - Edmund Halley

01 Croydon - Edmund Halley

CR9, Katharine Street, Croydon Public Library

Built in 1892 by Charles Henman Jr. this heavily decorated complex of buildings makes up Croydon's Town Hall. The building and the rounde...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Colonial Office - B05 - Reynolds

Colonial Office - B05 - Reynolds

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Colonial Office - B13 - Drake

Colonial Office - B13 - Drake

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Victoria - W1

Victoria - W1

W1, Mount Street, 122/3

{On a masonry shield just below Victoria's bust:} Jubilee 1837

1 subject commemorated
Knightsbridge - 1 - Edward VII

Knightsbridge - 1 - Edward VII

SW1, Knightsbridge, 55 - 91

This huge building, Grade 2 listed and in need of a clean, is actually 18 buildings behind a unifying facade designed by W. D. Caroe, in ...

1 subject commemorated

Previously viewed

B2 - Prince Albert

B2 - Prince Albert

W2, Westbourne Grove, 26, HBA

The Bayswater Athenaeum was built in 1863 by architect Arthur Billing of Newman and Billing. The name was originally inscribed in the pan...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
William Booth statue - Denmark Hill

William Booth statue - Denmark Hill

SE5, Champion Park, William Booth Memorial Training College

The statue was dedicated on the centenary of Booth's birth. The future Duke of Kent unveiled it when he was here to open the building.

2 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Skylon

Skylon

SE1, Jubilee Gardens

Plaque laid flat in the ground, to the west of the flagpole, to the right in our photograph. The main inscription reads like a quote but ...

2 subjects commemorated
Corporal Malcolm MacPhearson

Corporal Malcolm MacPhearson

See Farquar Shaw for the story of the Black Watch mutiny.

Person, Armed Forces, Execution, Scotland

1 memorial
Joe Bennett

Joe Bennett

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Lee Bennett was born on 19 January 1917 in Boise, Ada County, Idaho, USA, the eldest of the four children of Earl Phillips Bennett (1893-1977) and Ethel Lee Bennett née Ba...

Person, Armed Forces, USA

War served, WW2
1 memorial