In this 22nd volume in the acclaimed Public Sculpture of Britain series,
Terry Cavanagh, the author of three previous volumes, provides a
comprehensive, scholarly and highly readable account of over 250 public
sculptures in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster South-West.
Many great sculptures stand within the area’s parks: Kensington Gardens, with
the magnificent Albert Memorial, the much-loved Peter Pan and Henry
Moore’s Arch; and Hyde Park, with Jacob Epstein’s vibrant Rima. Statues in streets, squares and gardens reflect scientific progress, exploration and artistic achievement:Jenner, Shackleton, Livingstone, Carlyle, Mozart, Bartók and Whistler are just some of those commemorated. For those who look up, sculptures of faces, figures and animals greet them: Art Deco dominates once-great department stores (Barkers and Derry & Toms); allegorical figures enrich Victoria Station; the Natural History Museum exterior boasts a prehistoric menagerie; and there is a pantheon of celebrated artists on the Victoria & Albert Museum façade. Two of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries, Brompton and Kensal Green, are in the area and teem with monuments, while sculptural decorations help make Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, the ‘cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement’.
'Public Sculpture of Kensington and Chelsea with Westminster South-West' is a
richly illustrated and indispensable resource.
Terry Cavanagh’s outstanding qualification to write this book is the fact that he has already produced three volumes for the Public Sculpture of Britain series – the pilot volume on Liverpool (1997); Leicestershire and Rutland (2000); and South London (2007). He has contributed over 1,000 entries to The Bloomsbury Guide to Art (1996) and has revised several entries on sculptors for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Hardback: ISBN 978-1-8383976-1-6