No shortage of great writers in the English language – and no real shortage of statues remembering them. Sadly, they don’t seem to get the sites or attention given to generals or politicians and you have to look quite hard to find many of them.
Any comments - or a suggestion for a London secret? Please e-mail me.
Men of Letters 1 2
Robert Burns
The national poet of Scotland, ‘Rabbie’ Burns wrote in Scots dialect and he is celebrated worldwide every year on Burns Night, Jan 25, which ends with the singing of his famous ‘Auld Lang Syne’. This statue by John Steel has a twin in Central Park, New York, and shows him writing the poem ‘Highland Mary’.
Victoria Embankment SW1
Tube: Embankment
Samuel Johnson
England’s most famous writer of the 18th century -and creator of the first English dictionary - looks very cuddly and amusing company in this statue, hidden behind St Clement Dane's church where Fleet Street starts. Outside his house in nearby Gough Square is a statue of Hodge, a ‘very fine cat’.
Strand WC2
Tube: Temple
William Shakespeare
This rare statue to the Bard pays tribute to his friends, actors Henry Condell and John Heminge, who collected his works in the First Folio of 1623. It is in the grounds of St Mary Aldermanbury, bombed in 1940, whose remains were rebuilt in 1966 in Fulton, Missouri, as a memorial to Sir Winston Churchill.
Love Lane EC2
Tube: Barbican
John Bunyan
The author of Pilgrims Progress stands in a niche high on the corner of Catton Street, ignored by the many commuters using nearby Holborn Tube. This rather fine statue is by sculptor Richard Garbe RA and is dated 1953. John Bunyan died in Holborn in 1688.
Southampton Row WC1
Tube: Holborn
John Wilkes
Wilkes (1725- 1797) led a campaign for press freedom that saw him imprisoned in the Tower of London. Called ‘the ugliest man in England’, you’ll notice his statue is cross-eyed. He was a member of the notorious Hellfire Club. Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth was a distant relative.
Fetter Lane EC4
Tube: Chancery Lane
Sir Thomas More
The ‘Man for All Seasons’ has this colourful statue outside Chelsea Old Church. He coined the expression ‘Utopia’ in his book of that name. He was imprisoned in the Tower and beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
Cheyne Walk SW3
Tube: Sloane Square
