Bust

Knightsbridge - 3 - Roberts

Erection date: 1905

Stephen Brasher suggested that this is Field Marshal Lord Roberts and, having examined a number of portraits, especially one here, we agree.

Site: Knightsbridge - 6 busts (6 memorials)

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 red brick with stone dressings in an eclectic Queen Anne/Flemish style. 1902 - 5. Built as a mansion block but unusually there were seven developers who designed their own segments behind the facade.

A 2010 planning application contains a few drawings and early photographs but there is no mention of these busts, numbered here left to right.  

When we published these 6 busts we were pretty confident with our identification of heads 1 and 2 but were struggling to identify the others.  Readers quickly sent in some helpful suggestions, readers more familiar with the faces of celebrities from that period than we are.  So we have corrected our identifications, but if you think we still have it wrong please let us know.

The second floor corner at Wilton Place carries a rather splendid royal crest with the top-most lion looking more like a lap-dog.

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:
Knightsbridge - 3 - Roberts

Subjects commemorated i

Earl Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar

British field marshal, served in India and the Boer War. Born India to an Iri...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Knightsbridge - 3 - Roberts

Also at this site i

Knightsbridge - 4 - Kitchener

Knightsbridge - 4 - Kitchener

Stalin?  Can't be - for so many reasons, one being that he didn't look like t...

Read More

Knightsbridge - 5 - Temple

Knightsbridge - 5 - Temple

We original thought this was Gladstone (who had died only a few years before)...

Read More

Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

Lea Cornthwaite suggested this might be the Duke of Cambridge. Stephen Brashe...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Kensington Library - Caxton

Kensington Library - Caxton

W8, Philimore Walk, Kensington Central Library

The library, by E. Vincent Harris and opened in 1960, is the building to the south, the left of our picture. The Library Time Machine mus...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
National Portrait Gallery - Chantrey

National Portrait Gallery - Chantrey

WC2, Charing Cross Road

This building, 1896, designed by Ewan Christian, has 18 busts contained in medallions around the top of the facades. Starting at the east...

1 subject commemorated
Rosalind Franklin tondo

Rosalind Franklin tondo

NW3, Kidderpore Avenue, Rosalind Franklin building, on Hampstead Manor

In education, first there was STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and then there was STEAM (with A for Arts) which, to u...

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Canon Mortlock

Canon Mortlock

EC2, Foster Lane, church courtyard

Ipernity informs that this was set up as a memorial of Canon Mortlock, a head carved in 1936, long before his death in 1967, by Epstein.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
William Hogarth bust

William Hogarth bust

WC2, Leicester Square

There used to be a plaque to Hogarth somewhere in Leicester Square. Londonist found this lost plaque. All four of the Leicester Square b...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator