This article lists public artworks which used to exist in London, but which have either been destroyed or removed to another place. Works which have been moved within London are not included, nor are temporary installations such as those on the Fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square. However, where one statue has been removed and replaced by another similar one, the former is included in this list.
The costliest and most elaborate of the Eleanor crosses marking the sites where the Queen’s funeral cortège rested on the way to her burial at Westminster Abbey. The master mason Richard of Crundale died in 1293, after which the work was taken up by his brother Roger. The cross was destroyed under the orders of Parliament in 1647.[1]
The figure on horseback originally represented the Polish king John Sobieski and the lower figure a defeated Turk. The sculpture was bought in 1675 by Sir Robert Vyner, who had the rider's head remodelled to portray Charles II. In 1739 it was removed for the construction of the Mansion House; since 1883 it has stood outside Newby Hall, Yorkshire.[3]
A gilded lead replica of Nost's bronze equestrian statue, erected in Dublin in 1722 and now outside the Barber Institute, Birmingham. The horse was cast from Hubert Le Sueur's Charles I at Charing Cross. Purchased at the Cannons sale of 1747 and installed in the Square the following year. From the 1780s the statue was neglected and frequently vandalised; by the late nineteenth century only the horse remained, which was sold for £16.[4]
Cheere produced a bronzed lead statuette of the Duke of Cumberland (now in the National Army Museum) in around 1745. In 1770 a full-scale statue differing slightly from this model was erected in Cavendish Square; it was removed in 1868 and melted down.[6] In the summer of 2012 a replica made of soap by the Korean artist Meekyoung Shin was installed on the plinth (still in situ) and allowed to erode over the course of a year.[7] The display was later extended by a further six months to the end of 2013 and other versions were installed in the grounds of the South Korean National Museum of Contemporary Art[8] and at MoCA Taipei.[9]
Originally placed within the Hibbert Gate, immediately south of the entrance of the West India Docks office. Moved in 1875 to the top of the central gate pier at the West India Dock Road entrance, which was dismantled in 1943. Restored to its original position in 1997.[13] Removed in 2020 in response to Black Lives Matterprotests.[14]
Intended as a national memorial to George IV, this structure gave its name to the district of Kings Cross. It was much criticised and was demolished in 1845.[15]
The figurehead was installed above the shop in 1960 by its owner, Ian Sheridan, a descendant of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He had salvaged it from the wreckage of the ship after it was destroyed by fire in the 1930s. In the 2000s, after the shop changed hands, the figurehead was removed.[16]
Wyatt’s statue was installed on the Wellington Arch on 30 September 1846. It was regarded as a failure on aesthetic grounds and its gigantic size—30 ft high and 26 ft wide—was felt to be excessive for the commemoration of a single individual. It was removed to the military town of Aldershot, Hampshire, when the arch’s orientation was changed in 1883.[17]
Cast-iron statue originally displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. On long-term loan to the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron (where the statue was made) in Ironbridge, Shropshire, since 2017.[19]
Unveiled 18 November 1865 at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Moved in 1909 to the newly built Royal Army Medical College, which became the Chelsea College of Arts in 2003. The statue was then relocated to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.[20]
One of four busts of historical residents of the area, installed as part of Knowles’s redesign of the gardens, which were removed in 2010–12. This bust originally stood in the south-eastern corner of the square, near where Hogarth had a house from 1733 until his death in 1764,[21] but moved to the north-east in the 1989–92 refurbishment of the square.[22]
Hunter lived at 28 Leicester Square from 1783 to 1793.[23]Albert Grant, the owner of Leicester Square in 1874, originally commissioned Woolner to sculpt a bust of Samuel Johnson, who frequented Reynolds’s house on the square (q.v.). Grant was, however, persuaded by the Royal College of Surgeons to honour Hunter instead. The bust originally stood in the north-eastern corner of the square but changed places with the bust of Hogarth in the south-east when the square was refurbished in 1989–92.[22]
Formerly stood in the north-western corner of the gardens, a site close to 47 Leicester Square,[25] where Reynolds lived from 1760 until his death in 1792.[26]
Inaugurated 9 July 1875. A multi-figure composition including figures of the Muses and statues of the three poets crowned with a personification of Fame; all but the last of these have been lost since the fountain was dismantled in 1948, having sustained bomb damage in World War II.[27]
Unveiled 7 June 1893. The terracotta sculpture, situated close by Fawcett's home, was a gift from the pottery manufacturer Henry Doulton. Removed and destroyed in 1955.[31]
Unveiled 19 June 1895 by the Duke of Grafton. Cast from guns taken during the Indian Mutiny, of which Strathnairn was one of the main suppressors. Taken down in 1931 during work on a new subway for Knightsbridge tube station and kept in storage until it was sold by Westminster Council in 1964, it now stands in Liphook, Hampshire.[32]
The terracotta statue stood at this site until 1910, when it was removed for roadworks and destroyed. Other statues from the same mould went to Newbury and Gravesend.[33]
Unveiled 4 July 1921. A standing figure of Saint George, similar to Frampton's design for Maidstone War Memorial. Moved to the Pearl Centre, the company's new headquarters in Peterborough, in 1991.[35]
A recumbent nude statue of Pocahontas. Commissioned by the publisher Cassell and based on that firm's colophon, which referred to its originally having been based near Ludgate Hill where Pocantontas had once lived.[37] (See the article Bell Savage Inn.) This was later removed to Greycoat Place, Victoria, and then to Villiers House, Strand. It is thought to have been sold at auction in 1996.[38]
A commission by the London County Council, situated outside the estate's community centre, where a mother and baby clinic was held. In 1970 the work was reported stolen.[39]
A late addition to the complex, the sculpture was intended to recall the Stag Brewery which had stood on the site. Removed in 1997 to the Kent Millennium River Walk, Maidstone.[41]
Inspired by fountains the sculptor had seen at the Alhambra in Granada. Removed in 2009 when the plaza in front of Centre Point was pedestrianised as part of construction work for Crossrail. The fountains were given to the Architectural Association for installation at Hooke Park, the AA's school for rural architecture in Dorset.[42]
The sculpture stood in situ from 1972 to 2008, when it was taken down for renovation. Although the gallery has stated that it was originally commissioned as a temporary installation, the artist has disputed this and called for the work to be reinstated permanently.[43]
Commissioned by the London and Paris Property Group for the site, which was the front façade of their new offices. The plaster and polystyrene model for the statue, which is a self-portrait, is in the National Portrait Gallery.[49] Sold at auction by Bonhams in 2012.[50]
This replica, one of several made to mark the foundation's 250th anniversary, stood in the niche once occupied by Roubiliac's original.[53] (See below.) In 2020 it was removed in response to Black Lives Matter protests.[54]
Part of a series of works by the sculptor called Rational Beings, created by following the contours of a drawn line with stacked circles of polystyrene. Here the resulting three-dimensional shape was carved in Belgian granite.[55] Removed c. 2016.[56]
All the moving parts of the sculpture had to be removed in 2013 after a piece collapsed and fell onto the pavement on 22 June that year.[57][58] Removed completely circa 2018. [1][2]
To produce this work Banksy erected and dismantled three storeys of scaffolding without being observed, despite the site being behind a tall fence and in full view of a CCTV camera.[60] Westminster City Council destroyed the work as an example to graffiti artists.[61]
Installed for the 2012 Olympics, inspired by two poems by Geoffrey Chaucer who lived in Aldgate. Dismantled in 2015.[64][65]
Prior to the installation of the present statue of Oliver Cromwell in Parliament Square there was a different statue of Cromwell in another part of the square. It looked very similar to the one by Matthew Noble currently in Wythenshawe, Manchester, but it is not clear whether this is the same statue or one is a copy of the other.[citation needed]
The original column was removed in 1773. It was re-erected in Weybridge in 1820 as a memorial to Frederica, Duchess of York, where it is Grade II listed. A replica was unveiled at Seven Dials in 1989.[66][67][68]
The statue which stood outside St Paul's Cathedral was damaged by repeated attacks in the 19th century, and as it was in any case in rather poor condition, it was removed in 1885 together with the four statues at its base, and replaced by a copy, partly the work of Richard Claude Belt. The original was moved to a location near Hastings in Sussex.[69][70]
Geffrye's will provided for the creation of the almshouses; Nost's statue and the residents alike moved out to Mottingham in 1912. The replica (pictured) was installed that year, before the building opened as a museum in 1914.[71]
Commissioned in 1732, installed in a greenhouse in 1737 and moved to the centre of the garden in 1748. The statue deteriorated over time and was moved to the British Museum in 1983. A fibreglass replica was installed in its place; this too deteriorated and was replaced by a copy made of jesmonite.[72] That in turn was replaced in 2014 by a copy in Portland stone.[73]
Originally stood in a niche at the school funded by Cass (today The Aldgate School, and relocated). The statue was moved to premises on Jewry Street in 1869, which were rebuilt in 1898–1901. Moved indoors by 1919. In 1980 it was put on permanent loan to the Guildhall. A replica stood in the niche at Jewry Street from 1998 to 2020. (See above.)[53]
Gilded statue of the ballerina Anna Pavlova on the dome of the theatre. Taken down to protect it from bombing during World War II, and mislaid as a result. A replica (pictured) was installed in 2006.[74][75]
Woman with Fish
Cleveland Estate, Tower Hamlets (original); Millwall Park (replica, pictured)
The seated statue of Alfred Salter was stolen in 2011, after which the figures of his daughter Joyce and her cat were taken into safekeeping by Southwark Council.[76] The new work includes an additional sculpture portraying Salter's wife, Ada.[77]
Works removed and subsequently returned
The statue of Charles II in Soho Square was removed for many years to Grim's Dyke, the estate of W. S. Gilbert, and returned to its current position after the death of Gilbert's widow, who had willed it back to the square. It was originally accompanied by four other statues representing British rivers, and the current whereabouts of these is unknown; they have probably been destroyed or buried.
The Temple Bar Gate by Christopher Wren with its associated statues was removed from its original location at Temple Bar in 1878. It was re-erected at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire. In 2004 the gate was installed at a new location in the City of London, forming an entrance to the Paternoster Square development.[78]
^Gater, G. H.; Wheeler, E. P., eds. (1935). "The statue of Charles I and site of the Charing Cross". Survey of London: volume 16: St Martin-in-the-Fields I: Charing Cross. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
^Overall, W. H.; Overall, H. C., eds. (1878). "Cheapside Cross". Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579–1664. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
^Isis. Museum of London. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
^Osiris. Museum of London. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
^"Robert Milligan". National Recording Project. Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
^"Afghan and Zulu Wars Memorial". National Recording Project. Public Monuments & Sculpture Association. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
^"Prince Imperial". War Memorials Register. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
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Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-09595-1.
Matthews, Peter (2018). London's Statues and Monuments. Oxford: Shire Publications.
Ward-Jackson, Philip (2003). Public Sculpture of the City of London. Public Sculpture of Britain. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Public Sculpture of Britain. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.