In this 22nd volume in the acclaimed Public Sculpture of Britain series, Terry Cavanagh, the author of three previous volumes, provides a comprehensive, scholarly and highly readable account of over 250 public sculptures in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster South-West. His introduction, a fascinating artistic history, sets the scene. He describes Prince Albert’s scheme for a venue to show contemporary sculpture in South Kensington’s RHS gardens. Then, having outlined the sculptural displays in The Great Exhibition of 1851, and the International Exhibitions of 1862 and 1871–74, Cavanagh discusses the emergence and growth of art bronze foundries in Pimlico and Chelsea which cast statues and monuments for many of Victorian Britain’s leading sculptors.

Outstanding monuments by sculptors such as J.H. Foley, Godfrey Sykes and Timothy Butler are selected from two of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries, Brompton and Kensal Green. Certain sculptures in churches are also included, such as exquisite sculptural decorations by F.W. Pomeroy, H.H Armstead and Harry Bates in Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, ‘the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement’, and in Chelsea Old Church, Paolo Bernini’s monument to Lady Jane Cheyne, the only Italian sculpture from the 17th century in an English church. This is followed by an intriguing category of ‘Lost and Removed’ works. Who can remember, for example, the equestrian statue at the junction of Knightsbridge and  Brompton Road? Finally a section on contested heritage highlights the need to retain and explain controversial sculptures.

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