Erection date: 1911
A statue of Pavlova was added to the top of this newly built theatre in 1911 to celebrate the dancer and the role that the owner, Alfred Butt, played in her career. It is said that Pavlova considered it unlucky for her to see the statue and so avoided looking at it whenever she passed.
This was one of a number of London statues which were taken down for safe-keeping in 1939, but this one did not return and is now lost. A replica was installed in 2006, along with the head spike and spider's web entangling the dancer's limbs, presumably intended to deter pigeons - and look - no pigeons!
Site: Victoria Palace Theatre (2 memorials)
SW1, Victoria Street, Victoria Palace Theatre
In our photo the plaque can be seen to the right of the main entrance, above the woman's head.
The plaque is laid into a small aperture in the wall shaped like a fanlight, but there is no door or window below, and the spacing is such that we can't think there ever was. Google Maps street view goes back to July 2008 and shows this fanlight filled with a grill, out of which protrudes an ugly pipe, still in place in 2016, after which the renovation works began. These images support the decision to carry out the works but don't help to explain the origins of the fanlight. Arthur Lloyd has some early, undated, images of the theatre frontage and in one of them (admittedly only a drawing) the fanlight is clearly absent.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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