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List of public art in Covent Garden

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This is a list of public art in Covent Garden, a district in the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden.

Map of public art in Covent Garden

City of Westminster

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates
Date Artist / designer Architect / other Type Designation Notes

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Augustus Harris Memorial Drinking Fountain Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (Catherine Street)

51°30′46″N 0°07′15″W / 51.5128°N 0.1207°W / 51.5128; -0.1207 (Augustus Harris drainking fountain)
1897 Thomas Brock Sidney R. J. Smith Wall monument with drinking fountain and sculpture Grade I Unveiled 1 November 1897. The bust of Harris is in a niche flanked by brackets adorned with a Masonic motif. Below is a relief of infants personifying Comedy and Tragedy, reclining over a rusticated basement, within which are a lion's head water spout and basins. A lyre crowns the pediment and other musical instruments are represented in bronze reliefs on the columns.[1]
Memorial to David Garrick 27 Southampton Street

51°30′40″N 0°07′21″W / 51.5112°N 0.1224°W / 51.5112; -0.1224 (Memorial to David Garrick)
1901 Henry Charles Fehr Charles Fitzroy Doll Plaque with relief sculpture A profile portrait of the actor is flanked by figures of the Tragic and Comic Muses. Inscribed DAVID GARRICK/ LIVED HERE/ 1750–1772/ ΜΕΛΠΟΜΕΝΗ/ ΘΑΛΕΙΑ[2]

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Young Dancer Broad Court, off Bow Street

51°30′49″N 0°07′21″W / 51.5136°N 0.1225°W / 51.5136; -0.1225 (Young Dancer)
1988 Enzo Plazzotta Statue Unveiled 16 May 1988. A gift to Westminster City Council by the sculptor's estate.[3]
Neptune Fountain Churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden

51°30′41″N 0°07′25″W / 51.5114°N 0.1235°W / 51.5114; -0.1235 (Neptune Fountain)
1995 Philip Thomason Donald Insall Fountain with sculpture Part of the southern gate of the church, reconstructed to Inigo Jones's design after it had been removed in 1877. The material used is a very close match to Coade stone,[4] the recipe for which has been lost.
Sculpture Maiden Lane

51°30′38″N 0°07′25″W / 51.5105°N 0.1236°W / 51.5105; -0.1236 (Eamonn Hughes sculpture on Maiden Lane)
1998 Eamonn Hughes Sculpture [5]
Market Memorial Southampton Street

51°30′41″N 0°07′21″W / 51.5115°N 0.1225°W / 51.5115; -0.1225 (Covent Garden Market Memorial)
2006 Glynis Jones Owen Covent Garden Housing Project Architects Bronze relief panel Commemorates the fruit traders who worked at Covent Garden Market from 1670 to 1974. The deliberately crude style is intended to be in the spirit of the chapbooks popular in the 18th century.[6][7]

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The Conversion of Saint Paul Churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden

51°30′42″N 0°07′26″W / 51.5117°N 0.1238°W / 51.5117; -0.1238 (The Conversion of St Paul)
2010 Bruce Denny Equestrian sculpture Unveiled 20 March 2015 by Judi Dench.[8] Originally commissioned for an exhibition of 2010 marking the tercentenary of the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral.[9]

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Memorial to Agatha Christie Corner of Great Newport Street and Cranbourn Street

51°30′42″N 0°07′39″W / 51.5118°N 0.1274°W / 51.5118; -0.1274 (Memorial to Agatha Christie)
2012 Ben Twiston-Davies Memorial with sculpture Unveiled 18 November 2012. Marks the 60th year of the run of Christie's play The Mousetrap, the longest in theatrical history, which is staged nearby at St Martin's Theatre. The memorial takes the form of a book as Christie is also the world's best-selling novelist.[10] Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, the Orient Express and a country house are depicted in relief on the book's cover.[11]
Diamond Jubilee Memorial
Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II
Churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden

51°30′41″N 0°07′25″W / 51.5115°N 0.1236°W / 51.5115; -0.1236 (Diamond Jubilee labyrinth)
2012 ? Relief set into pavement A small, brick labyrinth encircling a relief of an over-sized coin.[12]

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Powerhouse Bull Inn Court 2013 John Atkin Relief attached to building The cogs represent the power station of the Charing Cross Electricity Supply Company that was on this site.[13]


London Borough of Camden

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates
Date Artist / designer Architect / other Type Designation Notes
Drinking fountain
Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria
High Holborn

51°30′58″N 0°07′35″W / 51.5160°N 0.1263°W / 51.5160; -0.1263 (Drinking Fountain)
1897 ? ? Drinking fountain Grade II Presented by the St Giles Board of Works through the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association.[14]

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Drama Through the Ages Former Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue 1930–1931 c. 1930–1931 Gilbert Bayes T. P. Bennett & Son Frieze Grade II A pageant of figures including Sybil Thorndike as Saint Joan, a Greek chorus, Shake­speare­an char­act­ers, the Chester players, Bacch­an­al­ian dancers, a har­le­quin­ade and a chorus line.[15]
Roundels Former Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue 1930–1931 c. 1930–1931 Gilbert Bayes T. P. Bennett & Son Reliefs Grade II Five overlapping pairs of roundels re­pre­sent­ing artistic eras: Egypt­ian and As­syr­ian; Roman and Grecian; It­alian Re­naiss­ance and Medi­eval; Elizabethan and Georgian; and Pomp­a­dour­ian and Vict­or­ian.[15]

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Seven Dials Monument Seven Dials

51°30′50″N 0°07′37″W / 51.5138°N 0.1270°W / 51.5138; -0.1270 (Seven Dials monument)
1988–1989 Andrew ("Red") Mason after Edward Pierce Column Unveiled 29 June 1989 by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, as part of the celebrations for the tercentenary of William III and Mary II's accession. The original Sundial Pillar was erected by Thomas Neale in the early 1690s; it was pulled down in 1773 in order to deter "undesirables" from congregating around it.[16]

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ob 08 Central Saint Giles, St Giles High Street

51°30′57″N 0°07′41″W / 51.5158°N 0.1280°W / 51.5158; -0.1280 (ob 08)
2008 Steven Gontarski Sculpture The bright red abstract sculpture, which stands 5 metres high, is made of painted and lacquered glass-fibre-reinforced plastic. Gontarski wished to "create a heart in the midst of an urban development".[17]
William Central Saint Giles, St Giles High Street

51°30′57″N 0°07′38″W / 51.5158°N 0.1273°W / 51.5158; -0.1273 (William)
2010 Rebecca Warren Sculpture Adapted from a smaller work by the sculptor also titled William. The fluid, anonymous figure is intended to "speak of the ever-shifting present" and not of the past, and thus have the opposite qualities to most public sculpture.[17][18]

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Family: from another place Action for Children headquarters, Great Queen Street

51°30′58″N 0°07′14″W / 51.51598°N 0.12048°W / 51.51598; -0.12048 (Family: from another place)
2010 David Worthington Sculpture Seven sculptures made from red Iranian travertine.[19]


References

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  1. ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 22–23.
  2. ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 255–256
  3. ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 10
  4. ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 249
  5. ^ Goodwin, Katey (15 February 2015). A sculpture right under our noses. Art UK. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  6. ^ Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 256–257
  7. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 344
  8. ^ "Dame Judi Dench Statue Unveiling – 20th March 2015". Vimeo. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  9. ^ "The Conversion of St. Paul". Bruce Denny. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  10. ^ "Agatha Christie memorial". Ben Twiston-Davies Sculpture. Archived from the original on 20 August 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  11. ^ Flood, Alison (10 August 2012). "Agatha Christie memorial to be erected". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  12. ^ "London's Labyrinths And Mazes". Londonist. October 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  13. ^ "Powerhouse". John Atkin. March 2024. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  14. ^ Historic England. "Drinking Fountain at junction with Shaftesbury Avenue (1113173)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  15. ^ a b Historic England. "Former Saville Theatre (1271631)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  16. ^ Completing the Renaissance: The Sundial Pillar & the streets. The Seven Dials Trust. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  17. ^ a b Central Saint Giles Art. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  18. ^ "Top Ten Public Contemporary Art Works In London". Artlyst. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  19. ^ "David Worthington FRSS". Royal Society of Sculptors. Retrieved 1 May 2023.

Bibliography

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  • Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09595-1.
  • Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Public Sculpture of Britain. Vol. 14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-691-3.