Statue

V&A façade - Gibbons

Erection date: 1909

Inscription

Grinlg. Gibbons

Site: Victoria & Albert Museum façade (38 memorials)

SW7, Cromwell Road

Excluding the allegories (such as Knowledge) there are 36 statues on the two public façades of the V&A Museum, on Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road. This building was designed by Aston Webb and built 1899-1909. Each statue has the subject's name on a label beneath the feet and the sculptor's name inscribed in the wall of the niche to the right of the statue. Starting in Cromwell Road and reading right to left:

Group of 6 British architects:
Chas. Barry
W. Chambers
Chrisr. Wren
Inigo Jones
John Thorpe
Wykeham

Group of 5 British painters:
J. E. Millais
Ld. Leighton
G. F. Watts
J. Constable
J. M. W. Turner

And flanking the entrance:
Queen Alexandra (to the right)
King Edward VII (to the left)

Albert (below the arch)
Victoria (in the arch)

On either side of the arch, at eye level there is a foundation stone:
Stone laid by Edward VII (to the right)
Stone laid by Victoria (to the left)

Group of 5 British painters:
R. Cosway
G. Romney
T. Gainsborough
J. Reynolds
W. Hogarth

Group of 6 British sculptors:
Alfred Stevens
John H. Foley
F. L. Chantrey
John Flaxman
John Bacon
Grinlg. Gibbons

And around the corner in Exhibition Road:

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
William Morris
Roger Payne
J. Wedgwood
T. Chippendale
Thos. Tompion

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
Huntingn. Shaw
George Heriot
William Caxton
William Torel
St. Dunstan

Note that there are more Johns than women but that's not difficult since, excluding royalty, there are no women!

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gibbons

Subjects commemorated i

Grinling Gibbons

Born Rotterdam. Wood carver and sculptor. Other works in London: a marble fon...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gibbons

Created by i

W. S. Frith

Sculptor. William Silver Frith. Born Leicester. Other London work: Metropolit...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gibbons

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Sir Sydney Waterlow - SW1 statue

Sir Sydney Waterlow - SW1 statue

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This statue is a copy of the one in Highgate.

1 subject commemorated
Chris Moyes

Chris Moyes

WC2, Covent Garden Piazza, London Transport Museum

This unusual memorial was brought to our attention by the ever fascinating Discovering London where you can read how it came to be.

1 subject commemorated
Mary Wollstonecraft, statue for

Mary Wollstonecraft, statue for

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The quotation is from Wollstonecraft's 1792 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women' where she reports Rousseau's comment: ""Educate women ...

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Crutched Friars

Crutched Friars

EC3, Crutched Friars, Friary Court

Red granite and off-white marble with some bronze. Close examination of this lovely sculpture revealed the secret inscription and a key ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim's Pocket

Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim's Pocket

SE16, Rotherhithe Street, Cumberland Wharf

The statue (next to a lamppost), comprises a (ghost of a) pilgrim father, looking over the shoulder of a small Bermondsey boy from about ...

2 subjects commemorated, 5 creators