Bust

ICI - 2 - Mendeleeff

Inscription

Mendeleeff

Site: Imperial Chemical House - 9 portrait keystones (10 memorials)

SW1, Millbank, 9, Imperial Chemical House

For an idea of what this area used to be like see this 1894ish map. It was all redeveloped following the 1928 flood. This block was designed by Sir Frank Baines and built in 1929-31 as HQ for Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI). Aka 'Nobel House' it is now, 2016, occupied by Ofgem, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets. The frontage boasts 9 portrait keystones of chemists and ICI directors: Cavendish is on the Horseferry Road frontage, Mendeleeff on the junction corner, the other 7 are on the river side, left to right: Lavoisier, McGowan, Nobel, Alfred Mond (ICI), Ludwig Mond, Priestley, Liebig. Each 5th floor keystone decorates an integrated window arrangement with the identifying name on the 4th floor balcony. In his book on London statues Osbert Sitwell reports a journalist  writing that these "masks" are "four times life-size" but he also writes that they are "seven storeys above the ground" so we have to allow for some exaggeration.

On the 5th floor are four magnificent statues by Charles Sergeant Jagger. See A London Inheritance for photos. As well as these keystones Fagan did most of the other sculpture on the building, including the massive bronze entrance doors.

2017: We watched the 1947 film "Mine Own Executioner" which uses a few London locations. We recognised that of the last scene - a suicide at the top of a building - and thought it might be this one. But it's actually the MI5 building immediately to the south of Lambeth Bridge, Thames House, which was built by ICI at the same time as IC House and not used by MI5 until 1994.

There are two more portrait keystones on Nobel House, behind this building.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
ICI - 2 - Mendeleeff

Subjects commemorated i

Dmitri Mendeleev

Born Siberia. Earlier versions existed but in 1869 he published the first wid...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
ICI - 2 - Mendeleeff

Created by i

William Bateman Fagan

Born Bermondsey. Andrew Behan's researches have found that when he was baptis...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
ICI - 2 - Mendeleeff

Also at this site i

Faraday on the ICI building entrance doors

Faraday on the ICI building entrance doors

These doors are in the centre of the river frontage of the building. Mapping...

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ICI - 5 - Nobel

ICI - 5 - Nobel

Alfred Nobel

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Nearby Memorials

Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

Knightsbridge - 6 - Salisbury

SW1, Knightsbridge, 55 - 91

Lea Cornthwaite suggested this might be the Duke of Cambridge. Stephen Brasher suggested Lord Salisbury.   Comparing pictures of the cont...

1 subject commemorated
Moncure Conway bust - lost

Moncure Conway bust - lost

WC1, Red Lion Square, Conway Hall

In the early 1900s Moncure Conway retired to Paris, where he met and became good friends with sculptor  Spicer Simson, still in the early...

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Isaac Newton bust

Isaac Newton bust

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Greenwich roundels - Howard

Greenwich roundels - Howard

SE10, King William Walk, Discover Greenwich (Royal Naval College, Pepys Building)

The roundels on the north, river-facing, frontage are occupied by, left to right: Anson, Drake, Cook, Howard, Blake, Benbow, Sandwich, Ro...

1 subject commemorated
Jellicoe bust

Jellicoe bust

WC2, Trafalgar Square

Left to right these busts are: Cunningham, Jellicoe and Beatty, that well known legal firm. (Unusually there is an error in the Margaret ...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators