Mary Seacole
This Jamaica-born mixed-race nurse ran a front-line hospital/store during the Crimean War in 1855, Florence Nightingale having refused her help despite Seacole’s experience of tropical disease. This design by Martin Jennings has been chosen for a site at St Thomas’ Hospital.
Apart from royalty, and naked models, you will not find many women among London’s statues but that must mean any who appear must have been remarkable people. These are all I can find. Oddly, Nightingale, Blake and Pankhurst are all by the same sculptor: AG Walker.
Any comments - or a suggestion for a London secret? Please e-mail me.
Women 1 2
Virginia Wolff
Woolf (1882-1941) was a member of the racy Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists who lived in this area of London. Considered one of the leading writers of her generation, she suffered from severe depression and drowned herself after filling her pockets with stones.
Tavistock Square WC2
Tube: Russell Square
Sarah Siddons
The actress Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), herself an amateur sculptor, is immortalised as the tragic muse after a painting by Reynolds. Famous for the role of Lady Macbeth, she was also the first woman to play Hamlet. Often painted, there is also a statue of her in Westminster Abbey.
Paddington Green W2
Tube:Edgware Road/Paddington
Anna Pavlova
Pavlova made her London debut at this theatre and a statue was put in place on the roof in 1911, although the superstitious prima donna refused to look at it. It is hard to see: it is very high. The original was taken down during World War II for safekeeping but was lost. This replica dates to 2006.
Victoria Palace Theatre SW1
Tube: Victoria
Violette Szabo GC
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) performed sabotage in occupied Europe during World War II. Karen Newman sculpted this SOE memorial bust of Violette Szabo, a former Brixton shopworker, captured on a mission in France and executed at Ravensbruck concentration camp aged 23.
Albert Embankment SE1
Tube: Westminster
Jemina Durning Smith
Not a statue but I can’t resist mentioning this wall plaque in Lambeth to mark the opening of the Durning LIbrary in 1888. Giving poor people access to books was a radical act in Victorian times, so imagine the problems Smith, a disabled woman, had in founding two libraries.
167 Kennington Lane
Tube: Kennington
