Statue

V&A façade - Bacon

Erection date: 1909

Inscription

John Bacon

Site: Victoria & Albert Museum façade (38 memorials)

SW7, Cromwell Road

Excluding the allegories (such as Knowledge) there are 36 statues on the two public façades of the V&A Museum, on Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road. This building was designed by Aston Webb and built 1899-1909. Each statue has the subject's name on a label beneath the feet and the sculptor's name inscribed in the wall of the niche to the right of the statue. Starting in Cromwell Road and reading right to left:

Group of 6 British architects:
Chas. Barry
W. Chambers
Chrisr. Wren
Inigo Jones
John Thorpe
Wykeham

Group of 5 British painters:
J. E. Millais
Ld. Leighton
G. F. Watts
J. Constable
J. M. W. Turner

And flanking the entrance:
Queen Alexandra (to the right)
King Edward VII (to the left)

Albert (below the arch)
Victoria (in the arch)

On either side of the arch, at eye level there is a foundation stone:
Stone laid by Edward VII (to the right)
Stone laid by Victoria (to the left)

Group of 5 British painters:
R. Cosway
G. Romney
T. Gainsborough
J. Reynolds
W. Hogarth

Group of 6 British sculptors:
Alfred Stevens
John H. Foley
F. L. Chantrey
John Flaxman
John Bacon
Grinlg. Gibbons

And around the corner in Exhibition Road:

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
William Morris
Roger Payne
J. Wedgwood
T. Chippendale
Thos. Tompion

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
Huntingn. Shaw
George Heriot
William Caxton
William Torel
St. Dunstan

Note that there are more Johns than women but that's not difficult since, excluding royalty, there are no women!

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Bacon

Subjects commemorated i

John Bacon the Elder

Awarded the first gold medal for sculpture by the Royal Academy in 1769. Othe...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Bacon

Created by i

W. S. Frith

Sculptor. William Silver Frith. Born Leicester. Other London work: Metropolit...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Bacon

Also at this site i

V&A façade - Chippendale

V&A façade - Chippendale

Not sure whether the statue represents junior or senior.

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim's Pocket

Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim's Pocket

SE16, Rotherhithe Street, Cumberland Wharf

The statue (next to a lamppost), comprises a (ghost of a) pilgrim father, looking over the shoulder of a small Bermondsey boy from about ...

2 subjects commemorated, 5 creators
Imperial Hotel - statue 15

Imperial Hotel - statue 15

WC1, Russell Square

On this site there used to be a sister hotel to Hotel Russell, also designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and erected in 1898. It was demolish...

1 creator
Sir Francis Drake - Deptford Town Hall

Sir Francis Drake - Deptford Town Hall

SE14, New Cross Road, Goldsmith's University of London

The 1905 building is by Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. All the extensive decorative sculpture work is by Henry Poole and has a nautica...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Gandhi statue - Bloomsbury

Gandhi statue - Bloomsbury

WC1, Tavistock Square Gardens

This seatless statue belongs to the select group of seated London statues - see Peabody.

1 subject commemorated, 5 creators
Queen Victoria statue - Croydon

Queen Victoria statue - Croydon

CR9, Katharine Street, Croydon Public Library

Built in 1892 by Charles Henman Jr. this heavily decorated complex of buildings makes up Croydon's Town Hall. The building and the rounde...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator