Bust

Knightsbridge - 2 - Queen Alexandra

Erection date: 1905

Site: Knightsbridge - 6 busts (6 memorials)

SW1, Knightsbridge, 55 - 91

This huge building, Grade 2 listed and in need of a clean, is actually 18 buildings behind a unifying facade designed by W. D. Caroe, in red brick with stone dressings in an eclectic Queen Anne/Flemish style. 1902 - 5. Built as a mansion block but unusually there were seven developers who designed their own segments behind the facade.

A 2010 planning application contains a few drawings and early photographs but there is no mention of these busts, numbered here left to right.  

When we published these 6 busts we were pretty confident with our identification of heads 1 and 2 but were struggling to identify the others.  Readers quickly sent in some helpful suggestions, readers more familiar with the faces of celebrities from that period than we are.  So we have corrected our identifications, but if you think we still have it wrong please let us know.

The second floor corner at Wilton Place carries a rather splendid royal crest with the top-most lion looking more like a lap-dog.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Knightsbridge - 2 - Queen Alexandra

Subjects commemorated i

Queen Alexandra

Wife of Edward VII, mother of George V. Born at the Amalienborg Palace, Copen...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Knightsbridge - 2 - Queen Alexandra

Also at this site i

Knightsbridge - 3 - Roberts

Knightsbridge - 3 - Roberts

Stephen Brasher suggested that this is Field Marshal Lord Roberts and, having...

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Knightsbridge - 4 - Kitchener

Knightsbridge - 4 - Kitchener

Stalin?  Can't be - for so many reasons, one being that he didn't look like t...

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Knightsbridge - 5 - Temple

Knightsbridge - 5 - Temple

We original thought this was Gladstone (who had died only a few years before)...

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Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

Lea Cornthwaite suggested this might be the Duke of Cambridge. Stephen Brashe...

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Nearby Memorials

President Lincoln bust

President Lincoln bust

EC3, Royal Exchange Buildings, Royal Exchange

Easily missed, this bust was brought to our attention by IanVisits.  It's at the eastern entrance to the building.

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Bermondsey Library - 1 - Homer

Bermondsey Library - 1 - Homer

SE16, Spa Road, Old Bermondsey Library / Kagyu Samye Dzong Buddhist centre

We would not describe this face as ugly so it can't be Socrates. We reckon it's Homer - he's often shown with a beanie hat.

1 subject commemorated
Hyde Park Barracks - Somerset and Raglan

Hyde Park Barracks - Somerset and Raglan

SW7, Kengsinton Road, Hyde Park Barracks - Officers' Mess

These two must be Somerset and Raglan but which is which we can't tell you.

2 subjects commemorated
Isaac Newton bust

Isaac Newton bust

WC2, Leicester Square

All four of the Leicester Square busts were removed in the 2010-12 redesign, and we don't know where they went.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Charles Kingsley - WC1

Charles Kingsley - WC1

WC1, Bloomsbury Way, Kingsley Hotel

This bust on the ornate underbelly of the bow windows is now obscured by the glass awning above the front entrance of the hotel.  At the ...

1 subject commemorated