This is a list of public art in Belgravia, a district in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. The area is mainly composed of early 19th-century residential buildings, many of which now serve diplomatic uses.[1] Several of the figures commemorated here were influential in the early development of Belgravia under the ownership of the Grosvenor family (later the Dukes of Westminster). Belgrave Square, which gives the locale its name,[2] has a particularly high number of embassies; its public sculptures are therefore of a pronounced international character.[3]
A three-sided sculptural group (badly weathered on two sides) of children playing, with a base depicting groups of animals in the round, all in Portland stone. The critic Kineton Parkes considered this to be Johnson's most important work.[7]
Unveiled by James Callaghan, then Foreign Secretary, and the Venezuelan president Rafael Caldera. The statue of Bolívar in London is said to represent him as a maker of constitutions, in contrast to those in Madrid, Rome and Paris, which are equestrian. The quotation on the pedestal stresses his admiration for British institutions: I am convinced that England alone is capable of protecting the world's precious rights as she is great, glorious and wise.[10]
The sculpture stands outside the extension to the German Embassy, with which it is contemporary.[11] It was conceived as "a fragile 'call-sign' in the heart of the surging metropolis".[12]Flora I, a work by the same artist, is in the garden of the German Chancellery in Berlin.[13]
Based on Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man. Completed by Holloway, Plazzotta's studio assistant, after the elder sculptor's death in 1981. Funded by the American construction magnate John M. Harbert.[14]
Given by the people of Spain in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. His birth date is mistakenly given as 1446 on the pedestal.[15]
A gift of the Anglo-Argentine community in Argentina, unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh.[16] San Martín is depicted in general's uniform with his bicorne hat held casually in his right hand, while in his left he holds a trailing sword below the hilt. An inscription reads His name represents democracy, justice and liberty.[17]
The composer is portrayed at the age of eight, when he stayed at 180 Ebury Street for the summer and autumn of 1764; he wrote his first two symphonies there. The statue was proposed to mark the bicentenary of Mozart's death in 1991.[18]
The developer of Belgravia is shown studying plans of the area, his foot resting on a milestone inscribed CHESTER/ 197/ MILES, a reference to his estate at Eaton Hall in Cheshire. On either side sit two talbots, the supporters from his coat of arms.[19] An inscription on the pedestal reads WHEN WE BUILD, LET US THINK WE BUILD FOR EVER—a slight misquotation from John Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849).[20]
A gift from the Duke of Westminster to mark the beginning of the third millennium. The inscription on the rim is taken from William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" (1803): To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.[21]
Unveiled 12 February 2002 by Jorge Sampaio, the President of Portugal.[22] A cast of a statue in Vila Franca do Campo on São Miguel Island, erected in 1932 to commemorate the quincentenary of the arrival of the Portuguese to the Azores.[23] The Portuguese Embassy is at 11 Belgrave Square.[24]
Based on the logo, depicting two gossiping Edwardian ladies out shopping, designed by Derrick Holmes for the dry cleaning firm Jeeves of Belgravia. Holmes also produced the maquette for the sculpture.[31]
Asprey, Ronald; Bullus, Claire (2009). The Statues of London. London and New York: Merrell. ISBN978-1858944722.
Blackwood, John (1989). London's Immortals: The Complete Outdoor Commemorative Statues. London and Oxford: Savoy Press. ISBN978-0951429600.
Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-09595-1.
Fraser, Inga (2014). "The 'English Independents': Some twentieth-century women carvers". Sculpture Journal. 23 (3): 369–78. doi:10.3828/sj.2015.8.
Kershman, Andrew (2013). London's Monuments. London: Metro Publications. ISBN978-1-902910-43-7.
Matthews, Peter (2018). London's Statues and Monuments. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN978-1-78442-256-1.