List of public art in Westminster
This is a list of public art in Westminster, a district in the City of Westminster, London.
The area's main sculptural showcase is Parliament Square, conceived in the 1860s to improve the setting of the rebuilt Palace of Westminster, to ease traffic flow and as a site for commemorating politicians of note.[1] Carlo Marochetti's statues of the engineers Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel were initially considered for the square, but were rejected as not fitting in with the political theme. (They were ultimately erected outside Euston station and on the Victoria Embankment.)[2] The square took on its present configuration in a refurbishment of 1949–50 by the architect George Grey Wornum, though four statues of twentieth-century figures have since been added.[3]
Another two political memorials (one of which, the Buxton Memorial Fountain, was moved by Wornum from Parliament Square) and The Burghers of Calais, a work on an historical theme by Auguste Rodin, are to be found in Victoria Tower Gardens. As the memorials therein all touch on the theme of opposition to injustice, the gardens have been described by David Adjaye, the designer of a projected national Holocaust memorial for that location, as a "park of Britain's conscience".[4]
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates |
Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
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Bust of Emery Hill | United Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row | 1675 | c.Anon. | R. R. Arntz (rebuilding) | Bust | Grade II | [5] | |
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Statue of Queen Anne | Outside 13 Queen Anne's Gate | 1708 at latest | Francis Bird | Statue | Grade I | [6] | |
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Statue of George Canning | Parliament Square 51.5010°N 0.1277°W |
1832 | Richard Westmacott | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Erected 2 May 1832 in New Palace Yard; in its current location since 1949. The features are based on the portrait bust of Canning by Francis Leggatt Chantrey, who was "not at all pleased with the preference shewn to Mr. Westmacott".[7] |
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Richard Coeur de Lion Richard I |
Old Palace Yard 51.4991°N 0.1256°W |
1856 | Carlo Marochetti | N/A | Equestrian statue | Grade II | Unveiled 26 October 1860. Casting of a clay model exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition to much acclaim; John Ruskin considered it to be "the only really interesting piece of historical sculpture we have".[8] |
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Westminster Scholars War Memorial | Broad Sanctuary 51.4995°N 0.1292°W |
1861 | John Richard Clayton and John Birnie Philip | George Gilbert Scott | Column with sculpture | Grade II | Commemorates Lord Raglan and other ex-pupils of Westminster School who died in the Crimean War[9] and the Indian Mutiny. Sculptures represent Saint George and the Dragon, Edward the Confessor and Henry III (builders of Westminster Abbey), Elizabeth I (second founder of the school) and Queen Victoria.[10] |
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Buxton Memorial Fountain
Inscribed to Buxton, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Macaulay, Brougham, Lushington, et al. |
Victoria Tower Gardens 51.4961°N 0.1248°W |
1865–66 | Thomas Earp (figures now lost) | Samuel Sanders Teulon with Charles Buxton | Drinking fountain | Grade II* | Erected in Parliament Square in 1865–66. Commissioned by Charles Buxton as a memorial to his father Sir Thomas Buxton and his colleagues in the Abolitionist movement, particularly those associated with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Removed in 1949 and re-erected on this site in 1957.[11] |
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Statue of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Parliament Square 51.5008°N 0.1273°W |
1874 | Matthew Noble | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 11 July 1874. Derby is represented wearing his robes as Chancellor of Oxford University. The bronze reliefs around the pedestal depicting scenes from his life were executed by Noble's assistant, Horace Montford.[12] |
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Statue of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston | Parliament Square 51.5009°N 0.1271°W |
1876 | Thomas Woolner | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 2 February 1876. Palmerston is portrayed in middle age, before he became Prime Minister. The pedestal departs from the "Gothic" model of the nearby statues of Derby and Peel.[13] |
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Statue of Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet | Parliament Square 51.5005°N 0.1273°W |
1877 (unveiled) | Matthew Noble | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Initially a statue of Peel was commissioned from Carlo Marochetti. This was ready by 1853 but was considered to be far too large. Marochetti produced a smaller work which was placed at the entrance to New Palace Yard; this was removed in 1868 and melted down in 1874.[14] |
Bust of the Rev. James Palmer | United Westminster Almshouses, Rochester Row | 1882 | c.Anon. | R. R. Arntz | Bust | Grade II | [15] | |
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Statue of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield | Parliament Square 51.5006°N 0.1273°W |
1883 | Mario Raggi | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 19 April 1883. The statue was the "shrine" of the Primrose League, a Conservative association established in Disraeli's memory. This group had an annual tradition of leaving wreaths in front of the statue on "Primrose Day", the anniversary of the prime minister's death.[16] |
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The Burghers of Calais | Victoria Tower Gardens 51.4975°N 0.1249°W |
1884–1889 | Auguste Rodin | Eric Gill (lettering) | Sculptural group | Grade I | Unveiled 19 July 1915. The National Art Collections Fund bought the cast in 1910. Rodin wanted the group situated "near the statue of William the Conqueror" (sic) but eventually agreed on a site in Victoria Tower Gardens.[17] The work was relocated and given its current pedestal in 2004.[18] |
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Statue of Oliver Cromwell | New Palace Yard 51.4999°N 0.1259°W |
1899 | William Hamo Thornycroft | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 18 November 1899.[19] The decision to erect a statue to Cromwell was controversial; the Irish Nationalist Party forced the withdrawal of public funds to pay for the statue. Instead an anonymous donor, rumoured to be Lord Rosebery, paid for the work.[20] |
Bust of Charles I | St Margaret's Church | 20th century? | Anon. (after Anthony van Dyck) | W. A. Forsyth (niche) | Bust | Grade I | [21] | |
War memorial | Churchyard of St John's, Smith Square, facing Dean Stanley Street 51.4960°N 0.1268°W |
after 1918 | ? | N/A | Cross | N/A | Commemorates the 120 parishioners of the church who died in World War I.[22] | |
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Statue of Abraham Lincoln | Parliament Square 51.5006°N 0.1278°W |
1920 (unveiled) | Augustus Saint-Gaudens | McKim, Mead & White | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled July 1920. A replica of the statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Initially the statue was to be erected in 1914, but this was postponed until 1917. By that time some favoured an alternative statue by George Grey Barnard; this was eventually erected in Manchester.[23] |
Drinking fountain with two groups of a nanny goat and kid | Victoria Tower Gardens 51.4951°N 0.1248°W |
1923 | Miss Harris assisted by Charles Sargeant Jagger | N/A | Drinking fountain with sculptural groups | N/A | Given by Henry Gage Spicer, the director of a paper firm, for the poor children of the area who used the Gardens as a playground. The extent of "Miss Harris's" involvement in the art deco sculptures is questionable.[24] | |
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Memorial to Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst | Victoria Tower Gardens 51.4979°N 0.1253°W |
1930 | Arthur George Walker | Herbert Baker (1930); Peter Hills (1959) | Statue with side screens and piers | Grade II* | The statue of Emmeline Pankhurst was unveiled on 6 March 1930 by Stanley Baldwin and moved to its present site in 1956. The stone screens were added in 1959 as a memorial to her daughter. Two bronze plaques show, on the right, a portrait medallion of Christabel Pankhurst and, on the left, the design on the WSPU prisoners' badge.[25] |
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Statue of George V | Old Palace Yard 51.4990°N 0.1263°W |
1947 (unveiled) | William Reid Dick | Giles Gilbert Scott | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 22 October 1947 by George VI. Completion of the statue was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War; the statue was stored at the quarry in Portland for the duration of the conflict.[26] |
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Statue of Jan Smuts | Parliament Square 51.5009°N 0.1269°W |
1956 | Jacob Epstein | possibly Charles Holden | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 7 November 1956. Winston Churchill, on his return to power in 1951, wished to erect a statue to Smuts; he was, however, unable to perform the unveiling due to illness. The pedestal is of granite from South Africa.[24] |
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Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 | Abingdon Street Gardens (College Green) 51.4980°N 0.1260°W |
1962–1965 | Henry Moore | N/A | Sculpture | Grade II* | Unveiled 1 November 1967. A gift by Henry Moore and the Contemporary Art Society.[27] Over the years the work's condition deteriorated because its legal owner was unknown.[28] The House of Commons accepted ownership of the sculpture in 2011; it is now part of the Parliamentary Art Collection.[29] |
Christ of the Sacred Heart | Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Horseferry Road | 1964 | Arthur Fleischmann | Harry G. Clacy | Architectural sculpture | N/A | [30] | |
Man and Woman | Albany House, Petty France | 1964 | Willi Soukop | D. E. Harrington | Architectural sculpture | N/A | [31] | |
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Statue of Winston Churchill | Parliament Square 51.5008°N 0.1265°W |
1973 | Ivor Roberts-Jones | N/A | Statue | Grade II | Unveiled 1 November 1973 by Clementine, Lady Spencer-Churchill. Churchill indicated his desire for a statue of himself in this spot during Wornum's reconfiguration of Parliament Square. An early version of the statue was felt to bear too close a resemblance to Benito Mussolini and had to be modified.[32] |
Crucifixion | College Garden, Westminster Abbey | 1974 | Enzo Plazzotta | N/A | Sculptural group | N/A | A group depicting the crucified Christ with the Good and Bad Thieves, donated to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey in 1993.[33] | |
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Jubilee Fountain | New Palace Yard 51.5005°N 0.1252°W |
1977 | Walenty Pytel | N/A | Fountain with sculpture | N/A | Unveiled 4 May 1977 by Elizabeth II. The two tiers of animals represent the continents: on the lower tier are a lion for Africa, a unicorn for Europe and a tiger for Asia, on the upper an eagle for the Americas, a kangaroo for Australia and a penguin for Antarctica.[34] |
Planned Growth | Rowan House, Greycoat Street | 1986–87 | Peter Thursby | Renton Howard Wood Levine | Relief | N/A | Awarded the Royal Society of British Sculptors' silver medal in 1987.[35] | |
Memorial to Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and War | Broad Sanctuary 51.4996°N 0.1286°W |
1996 | ? | N/A | Plaque in pavement | N/A | Unveiled 10 October 1996 by Elizabeth II.[36] | |
Fountain | St John's Gardens | 2001 | ? | ? | Fountain | N/A | A replacement for a 19th-century fountain which had become derelict. Installed as part of the redevelopment of the Westminster Hospital site.[37] | |
Golden Jubilee Sundial | Old Palace Yard 51.4990°N 0.1261°W |
2002 | Quentin Newark (of Atelier Works) | Incisive Lettering (lettering) | Analemmatic sundial in pavement | N/A | Parliament's gift to the Queen on her Golden Jubilee.[38] The inscription around the rim is from Henry VI, Part 3: To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, thereby to see the minutes how they run: how many makes the hour full complete, how many hours brings about the day, how many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live.[39] | |
Screens | St John's Gardens | 2005 | Wendy Ramshaw | N/A | Metalwork grilles | N/A | 12 grilles set into the existing red brick wall between the gardens and the former Westminster Hospital, commissioned as a Section 106 requirement for the development of the hospital site into upmarket residential accommodation.[37][40] | |
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Statue of Nelson Mandela | Parliament Square 51.5008°N 0.1265°W |
2007 | Ian Walters | N/A | Statue | N/A | Unveiled 29 August 2007. Westminster City Council had earlier refused permission for placing the statue in Trafalgar Square adjacent to South Africa House.[41] On a visit to London in 1961, Mandela had joked that one day his statue would replace that of Jan Smuts; they now both have statues in Parliament Square.[42] |
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Statue of David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor | Parliament Square 51.5008°N 0.1267°W |
2007 (unveiled) | Glynn Williams | N/A | Statue | N/A | Unveiled 25 October 2007 by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. The bronze figure stands on a plinth of slate from Penrhyn Quarry, North Wales.[43] |
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Lines for the Supreme Court | Outside the Supreme Court at Middlesex Guildhall | 2009 | ? | N/A | Inscription on curved wall | N/A | The complete text of a poem by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, which he also read out at the Supreme Court's opening ceremony.[44] |
Statue of Elizabeth I | Little Dean's Yard | 2010 | Matthew Spender | N/A | Statue | N/A | Unveiled 21 May 2010. Commemorates the 450th anniversary of the founding of Westminster School by Elizabeth I. The sculptor (the son of the poet Stephen Spender) is an old boy of the school.[45] | |
Memorial to William Vincent | Vincent Square | 2010 | Karen Newman | N/A | Plaque with relief sculpture | N/A | Commissioned by the Vincent Square Residents Association to mark the bicentenary of the square's creation as playing fields for Westminster School, of which Dean Vincent was headmaster. Based on a portrait by William Owen and inscribed ELOQUERE PUER ELOQUERE ("speak out, boy, speak out"), an oft-heard utterance of the Dean's.[46] | |
Fruit sculptures | Abbey Orchard Estate courtyard 51.4978°N 0.1311°W |
2012 | Sarah Staton | N/A | Sculptures | N/A | Gigantic sculptures of English fruit, made to appear as if they have fallen from the plane trees nearby.[47] The scheme won the UK Landscape Award for Artworks in 2012.[48] | |
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Statue of Mahatma Gandhi | Parliament Square 51.5006°N 0.1272°W |
2015 | Philip Jackson | N/A | Statue | N/A | Unveiled 14 March 2015, on the centenary of Gandhi's return to India from South Africa. The statue is based on a photograph of Gandhi at 10 Downing Street, from a 1931 visit to London in which he met Ramsay MacDonald.[49] |
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Statue of Millicent Fawcett | Parliament Square | 2018 | Gillian Wearing | N/A | Statue | N/A | Unveiled 24 April 2018. Commissioned as part of commemorations of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918.[50] |
Architectural sculpture of Westminster Abbey
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates |
Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Statue of Saint Maximilian Kolbe | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Andrew Tanner | Statue in niche | Grade I | [51] | ||
Statue of Manche Masemola | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [52] | ||
Statue of Archbishop Janani Luwum | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [53] | ||
Statue of Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [54] | ||
Statue of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [55] | ||
Statue of Archbishop Óscar Romero | Above Great West Door | 1998 | John Roberts | Statue in niche | Grade I | [56] | ||
Statue of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [57] | ||
Statue of Esther John | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [58] | ||
Statue of Lucian Tapiedi | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Tim Crawley | Statue in niche | Grade I | [59] | ||
Statue of Wang Zhiming | Above Great West Door | 1998 | Neil Simmons | Statue in niche | Grade I | [60] |
Works formerly on display outdoors
Image | Title / subject | Location and coordinates |
Date | Artist / designer | Architect / other | Type | Designation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Faith and Hope | Formerly in College Garden, Westminster Abbey (removed for conservation, to be displayed in the Triforium by mid-2018)[61] 51.4977°N 0.1273°W |
1686 | Grinling Gibbons and Artus Quellinus III | N/A | Statues | Grade II | Four marble statues from the altarpiece of the Catholic chapel at the Palace of Whitehall, commissioned by James II and designed by Christopher Wren. The altarpiece was dismantled after the Whitehall Palace fire of 1695. These fragments are in very poor condition.[62] |
See also
References
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 187
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 188.
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 189
- "Sir David Adjaye and Ron Arad Architects Selected to Design UK's New Holocaust Memorial in Central London", ArchDaily, 24 October 2017, retrieved 24 April 2018
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 237–238.
- Baker, Margaret (2002), Discovering London Statues and Monuments, Shire Publications Ltd., p. 59
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 190–192
- Richard Coeur de Lion conservation work, UK Parliament, archived from the original on 15 June 2010, retrieved 8 July 2010
- Walford, Edward (1878), "Westminster: King St, Great George St and the Broad Sanctuary", Old and New London: Volume 4, Institute of Historical Research, retrieved 14 March 2013
- "Broad Sanctuary", Gardenvisit.com, retrieved 23 October 2011
- Historic England. "Buxton Memorial Fountain, Victoria Tower Gardens (1066151)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 192
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 195–197
- "Noble, Matthew (bap. 1817, d. 1876), sculptor", Your Archives, The National Archives, retrieved 23 October 2011
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 237.
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 200–3
- Hall 2003, pp. 128 and 132
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 377–380
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 172
- "Oliver Cromwell Statue", Public Art Around the World, retrieved 24 October 2011
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 245.
- "St Johns Parishioners—WW1", War Memorials Archive, Imperial War Museums, retrieved 29 July 2012
- "The statue of Abraham Lincoln in Parliament Square", Your Archives, The National Archives, retrieved 7 October 2011
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 206–210
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 382–384
- Speel, Bob, Parliament Square through to Victoria Tower Gardens, retrieved 8 July 2010
- Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 (LH 516), The Henry Moore Foundation, retrieved 4 November 2011
- Bailey, Martin (17 October 2011), "Who owns this damaged masterpiece by Henry Moore?", The Art Newspaper, retrieved 5 April 2012
- "Henry Moore sculpture to join Parliamentary Art Collection". UK Parliament. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 80–81.
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 218.
- Black 2013, passim
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 412
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 177
- Ward-Jackson 2011, p. 50.
- "Queen unveils memorial to victims of violence", The Herald, 11 October 1996, retrieved 30 September 2011
- "St John's Gardens", London Gardens Online, London Parks & Gardens Trust, retrieved 31 October 2018
- Baines & Dixon 2003, p. 148
- "Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations—8. Golden Jubilee memorials…", Exploring London, 6 June 2012, retrieved 17 January 2013
- Screens For Westminster Green Apartments, St John’s Gardens, Westminster, London, Ramshaw Watkins, retrieved 31 October 2018
- London Mandela statue for Parliament Sq, BBC News, 29 August 2007, retrieved 30 September 2011
- Skinner, Rob (December 2009), "Mandela: A Critical Life", Reviews in History, retrieved 7 October 2011
- "Lloyd George statue 'is a disgrace'", The Independent, 26 October 2007, retrieved 22 September 2014
- Suroor, Hasan (17 October 2009), "Queen opens Supreme Court", The Hindu, retrieved 15 December 2014
- "New statue of Queen Elizabeth I unveiled in Little Dean's Yard", OWW Online, retrieved 5 May 2015
- "Bust: William Vincent", London Remembers, retrieved 13 December 2016
- Abbey Orchard Estate (PDF), Farrer Huxley Associates, p. 8, archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2015, retrieved 11 August 2014
- Sarah Staton, Royal College of Art, retrieved 11 August 2014
- Johnston, Chris (14 March 2015), "New Gandhi statue unveiled in London's Parliament Square", The Guardian, retrieved 14 March 2015
- Millicent Fawcett: Statue of suffragist unveiled, BBC News, 24 April 2018, retrieved 24 April 2018
- Maximilian Kolbe, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Manche Masemola, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Janani Luwum, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Martin Luther King Jr, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Oscar Romero, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Esther John, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Lucian Tapiedi, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Wang Zhiming, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 16 April 2013
- Arnold Quellin, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 8 July 2018
- Ward-Jackson 2011, pp. 410–411
Bibliography
- Baines, Phil; Dixon, Catherine (2003), Signs: Lettering in the environment, London: Laurence King Publishing, ISBN 1856693376CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Black, Jonathan (2013), "Making the Rock of Gibraltar: Ivor Roberts-Jones and the Sir Winston Churchill Commission for Parliament Square (1970–73)", in Jonathan, Black; Ayres, Sara (eds.), Abstraction and Reality: The Sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, pp. 63–83, ISBN 978-1781300107
- Hall, James (2003), "Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais", in Verdi, Richard (ed.), Saved! 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund, London: Scala, pp. 128–133, ISBN 9781857593044
- Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, 14, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-1-84631-691-3CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)