‘England and America,’ said George Bernard Shaw, ‘are two countries separated by a common language.’ The links between the two allies go back to The Mayflower, which left with the Pilgrim Fathers in 1621 to found a colony in the ‘New World’.
Any comments - or a suggestion for a London secret? Please e-mail me.
America 1 2
Eagle Squadron
This monument to the American Eagle Squadron pilots of World War II, scuplted by Dame Elizabeth Frink (1930 - 1993) - was unveiled in 1986. Most of its pilots were American citizens who volunteered to join the Royal Air Force in the early 1940s during WWII when the USA was still neutral.
Grosvenor Square W1
Tube: Bond Street
Eisenhower Statue
Sculptor Robert Lee Dean’s statue, unveiled in 1989, stands opposite the building where General Eisenhower planned the D-Day Landings of World War II. The memorial was paid for by the citizens of Kansas City - Dwight Eisenhower was from the Kansas City area.
Grosvenor Square W1
Tube: Bond Street
Roosevelt & Churchill
Called 'Allies', this statue by Lawrence Holofcener was unveiled in 1995 by the Bond Street Association to mark 50 years of peace. After their stand against Nazism in World War II, the two men helped found the United Nations. Churchill’s mother was American and he and FDR were distant cousins.
Bond Street W1
Tube: Bond Street
Roosevelt Memorial
It took a mere six days to raise by public subscription the money for this memorial to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It shows him standing - even though in life his legs were paralysed from the age of 39. Unveiled in 1948 by Eleanor Roosevelt, the statue is by Sir William Reid Dick (1878-1961).
Grosvenor Square W1
Tube: Bond Street
George Peabody
The first American to be given the Freedom of the City of London, George Peabody made his first fortune laying railroads in the Wild West. Coming to London in 1837, he prospered as a banker and set up some 20 charities in Britain and America. He has been described as the first great philanthropist.
Royal Exchange EC3
Tube: Bank
John F Kennedy
This uncharismatic bronze bust was paid for by £1 donations from 50,000 readers of the Sunday Telegraph. Unveiled in 1965 by the late Senator Robert Kennedy, it is by French sculptor Jacques Lipchitz 1891-1973), one of the most important Cubist sculptors of the 20th century.
Park Crescent W1
Tube: Great Portland Street
The Grosvenor Chapel
First opened in 1731, this church has had a varied history, with much tinkering to its appearance over the centuries. It was the model for many of the churches of New England and, during World War II, was the place of worship for the American forces in London.
24 South Audley Street W1
Tube: Bond Street
www.grosvenorchapel.org.uk
Martin Luther King Jr
This work by British sculptor Tim Crawley is in a gallery of ten modern martyrs above the Great West Door, unveiled in 1998 to fill niches that had been empty since the Middle Ages. The abbey’s Canon Harvey said: ‘The 20th century has been by far the greatest period of Christian martyrdom.’
Westminster Abbey
Tube: Westminster
