List of public art in Kensington

This is a list of public art in Kensington, a district in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London.

Map of public art in Kensington

City of Westminster

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
More images	Memorial to the Great Exhibition	Kensington Gore 51°30′01″N 0°10′38″W	1863	Joseph Durham	Sydney Smirke	Statue with other sculpture	Grade II	Erected in June 1863 in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society in South Kensington. Moved to its present site in the early 1890s.[1] Another cast of the statue of Prince Albert is in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.[2]
More images	Shields	Royal Albert Hall	c. 1866	Godfrey Sykes	Francis Fowke	Reliefs	Grade I	63 terracotta shields with 27 different charges,[3] installed after Sykes's early death in 1866.[4]
	Procession of Musicians and Singers and other decorations	26 Kensington Gore, originally the National Training School for Music	1874–1875 c. 1874–1875	F. W. Moody	H. H. Cole	Frieze and sgraffito decorations	Grade II	Moody drew inspiration from the frieze of the Parthenon; his students at the National Art Training School executed the work.[5]
	Music	Queen Alexandra's House, Kensington Gore	1884	Richard Ledward	Caspar Purdon Clarke	Terracotta relief	Grade II	A representation of a female figure playing a violin and a dancing putto holding a pair of cymbals.[6]
	Visual Arts	Queen Alexandra's House, Kensington Gore	1884	Richard Ledward	Caspar Purdon Clarke	Terracotta relief	Grade II	Two allegorical figures alluding to painting and architecture, with a sculptor's tools also visible.[6]
More images	Statue of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala	Queen's Gate 51°30′05″N 0°10′49″W	1891	Joseph Edgar Boehm	—	Equestrian statue	Grade II	Originally stood in Waterloo Place; moved to its current site in 1921. A replica of the statue to Napier in Kolkata. The boundary line with Kensington and Chelsea bisects the length of this statue.[7] In 2004 the artist Eleonora Aguiari wrapped the statue in bright red tape as a comment on Britain's imperialist past.[8]
	Lions	Imperial College Road, at the foot of the Queen's Tower 51°29′55″N 0°10′37″W	1893	Harry Dixon	T. E. Collcutt (original setting)	Sculpture	—	Two of a set of four lions couchant which originally stood outside the demolished Imperial Institute; the other pair were moved to the Commonwealth Institute and are now in the gardens of Clarence House.[9]
	Memorial to the Victims of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956	Façade of Ognisko Polskie, 55 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road elevation 51°29′57″N 0°10′27″W	1960	Ferenc Kovács		Plaque with relief sculpture		[10]
	Scientific Diagrams and Equations	Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road 51°29′59″N 0°10′45″W	1960	John Rattenbury Skeaping		Architectural sculpture		[11]
	Mosaic	Royal Albert Hall, South Porch 51°30′02″N 0°10′38″W	2003	Shelagh Wakely (made by Trevor Caley)	Building Design Partnership (South Porch)	Mosaic	—	Installed on the pediment of the Building Design Partnership's new South Porch of 2003,[12] the 60,000-piece mosaic is inspired by chaos theory[13] and by the existing, Victorian frieze on the Albert Hall's façade.[14]
	Balustrade	Royal Geographical Society, Exhibition Road 51°30′04″N 0°10′29″W	2004	Eleanor Long	Craig Downie	Glass balustrade	—	Images of contours, maps and landscapes are etched into the glass panels.[15][16]
	Velocity Wave[15]	Imperial College Sports Centre, Prince's Gardens 51°30′00″N 0°10′24″W	2004–2006	Pat Kaufman	Arup Associates	Glass balustrade	—	The artist consulted scientists at Imperial College researching into the velocity wave patterns of different sporting activities. These patterns were etched into the glass panes at the entrance ramps and stairs to the sports centre, and infilled with resin and gold leaf. The balustrade is lit at night by white LED lights.[17]
More images	Alert	Dangoor Plaza 51.4980°N 0.1770°W / 51.4980; -0.1770 (Alert)	2022	Antony Gormley	—	Sculpture	—	A gift to Imperial College London from an alumnus, Brahmal Vasudevan, and his wife Shanthi Kandiah.[18]
More images	Statue of Elizabeth II	Royal Albert Hall, South Porch	2022	Poppy Field		Statue in niche		Unveiled 11 November 2023 by Charles III and Queen Camilla. Elizabeth II is shown as she would have appeared in the mid-1960s, wearing the Vladimir Tiara and Delhi Durbar Necklace.[19][20]
More images	Statue of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh	Royal Albert Hall, South Porch	2022	Poppy Field		Statue in niche		Unveiled 11 November 2023, a pendant to the statue of Elizabeth II. Prince Philip is shown in white tie, wearing several of his orders and military medals, gazing towards the Queen.[19][21]

Royal Albert Hall frieze

Detail of the frieze

The exterior of the Royal Albert Hall (built in 1867–1871 to the designs of Francis Fowke and Henry Young Darracott Scott) is embellished with a mosaic frieze composed of sixteen separate designs by multiple artists. This was assembled from 800 slabs prepared by attendees of the South Kensington Museum's mosaic class; the terracotta was manufactured by Minton, Hollins and Company. The designs are listed below in anti-clockwise order from the north.^[22]

#	Subject	Artist	Designation
1	Various Countries of the World Bringing in Their Offerings to the Exhibition of 1851	Edward Poynter	Grade I
2	Music	Frederick Richard Pickersgill
3	Sculpture	Frederick Richard Pickersgill
4	Painting	Frederick Richard Pickersgill
5	Princes, Art Patrons and Artists	Edward Armitage
6	Workers in Stone	William Frederick Yeames
7	Workers in Wood and Brick	William Frederick Yeames
8	Architecture	William Frederick Yeames
9	The Infancy of the Arts and Sciences	Frederick Richard Pickersgill
10	Agriculture	Henry Stacy Marks
11	Horticulture and Land Surveying	Henry Stacy Marks
12	Astronomy and Navigation	Henry Stacy Marks
13	A Group of Philosophers, Sages and Students	Edward Armitage
14	Engineering	John Callcott Horsley
15	The Mechanical Powers	Henry Hugh Armstead
16	Pottery and Glassmaking	Frederick Richard Pickersgill

Royal Geographical Society

Main articles: Royal Geographical Society and Lowther Lodge

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
	Bust of Clements Markham	Courtyard	1921	F. W. Pomeroy		Bust	Grade II*	[23]
More images	Statue of Ernest Shackleton	Exhibition Road façade 51.5015°N 0.17479°W / 51.5015; -0.17479 (Statue of Ernest Shackleton)	1927–1932	Charles Sargeant Jagger		Statue in niche	Grade II*	[24][25]
More images	Statue of David Livingstone	Kensington Gore façade 51.50161°N 0.17498°W / 51.50161; -0.17498 (Statue of David Livingston)	1953	T. B. Huxley-Jones		Statue in niche	Grade II*	[23]

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
More images	Queen Victoria Monument	Warwick Gardens 51°29′49″N 0°12′15″W	1904	—	H. L. Florence	Commemorative column	Grade II	[26]
More images	Kensington War Memorial	Kensington Church Street, southern end 51°30′08″N 0°11′28″W	1922	F. W. Pomeroy	Major Hubert C. Corlette	War memorial	Grade II	Unveiled 1 July 1922 by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.[27]
	Genius	Kensington Central Library 51°30′05″N 0°11′40″W	1958	William McMillan	E. Vincent Harris	Architectural sculpture	Grade II*	[28]
	Bust of Geoffrey Chaucer	Kensington Central Library	1958	William McMillan	E. Vincent Harris	Architectural sculpture	Grade II*	[29]
	Bust of William Caxton	Kensington Central Library	1958	William McMillan	E. Vincent Harris	Architectural sculpture	Grade II*	[30]
	Statue of a lion with the Royal coat of arms	Outside Kensington Central Library, facing Phillimore Walk 51°30′05″N 0°11′40″W	1958	William McMillan	E. Vincent Harris	Architectural sculpture	Grade II*	[31]
	Statue of a unicorn with the Royal coat of arms	Outside Kensington Central Library, facing Phillimore Walk 51°30′05″N 0°11′39″W	1958	William McMillan	E. Vincent Harris	Architectural sculpture	Grade II*	[32]
More images	Head of Invention	Outside the Design Museum 51°29′58″N 0°11′58″W	1989	Eduardo Paolozzi	—	Sculpture	—
	Head of the Stairs	Hornton Street 51°30′06″N 0°11′42″W	2000	Ivor Abrahams	—	Sculpture	—	[33]
	Here and There	Junction of Canning Passage and Victoria Road	2023	Nick Hornby	—	Multi-perspective sculpture	—	Combines the silhouette of Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog with a squiggle from a page of Sterne's Tristram Shandy.[34] Commissioned as part of the One Kensington Gardens development.[35]

Earl's Court

Main article: Earl's Court

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
More images	Do It All	Royal Warwick Square	2023	Nick Hornby	—	Multi-perspective sculpture	—	Combines the profile of Nefertiti with the silhouette of the Albert Memorial. The brief called for a com­memor­ation of two residents of the area: George Gilbert Scott and Howard Carter.[36] A Post­modern­ist, Neo-Egyptian branch of Homebase formerly stood on the site, where Hornby shopped for supplies growing up.[35]

Holland Park

Main article: Holland Park

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
More images	The Ancient Melancholy Man	Holland Park	16th century	?	—	Statue	—	[37]
More images	Milo of Croton Trying His Strength	Holland Park	19th century	After Edme Dumont	—	Sculpture	—	Donated by the Friends of Holland Park in 2003.[38]
More images	Statue of Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland	Holland Park 51°30′15″N 0°12′12″W	1872	George Frederic Watts and Joseph Edgar Boehm	—	Statue	Grade II	Unveiled 1926.[39]
More images	Boy with Bear Cubs	Holland Park	1902	John Macallan Swan	—	Statue on pedestal	—	[40]
More images	Sun Worshipper	The Café, Holland Park	1910	Jacob Epstein	—	Limestone relief panel	—	[41]
More images	Annunciation	Holland Park	2000	Andrew Burton	—	Sculpture	—	[42]
	Caesura VI	Holland Park	2000	Charles Hadcock	—	Sculpture	—	[43]
More images	Tortoises with Triangle and Time	Holland Park	2000	Wendy Taylor	—	Sundial with sculpture in bronze	—	[44]
More images	Tonda	Holland Park	2014	Jonathan Loxley	—	Abstract sculpture in honey onyx	—	[45]
More images	Walking Man	Holland Park	2014	Sean Henry	—	Statue	—	[46]

North Kensington and Notting Hill

Main articles: North Kensington and Notting Hill

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
	Coat of arms of the National Bank Limited (Azure a harp Or within an orle of bezants)	Pembridge Gardens, on side of Royal Bank of Scotland, Notting Hill Gate 51.5092°N 0.1965°W / 51.5092; -0.1965 (Coat of arms of the National Bank Limited)	1950s	?		Architectural sculpture (relief)		The National Bank was based in Ireland, and had a branch here. Its British operations were eventually acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1985.[47]
	Mosaic of Saint Sava	Façade of St Sava's Serbian Orthodox Church, Notting Hill 51.5169°N 0.2088°W / 51.5169; -0.2088 (Mosaic of Saint Sava)	1952 c. 1952			Mosaic	—	[48]
More images	Statue of Saint Volodymyr	Holland Park Avenue 51.5074°N 0.2041°W / 51.5074; -0.2041 (Statue of Saint Volodymyr)	1988	Leo Mol	—	Statue	—	Unveiled 29 May 1988. Commemorates the 1,000th anniversary of the Christianisation of Kievan Rus'. Later in 1988, another statue of the saint by the same sculptor was erected in Rome.[49]
	Carnival Elephant	Outside Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate 51.5090°N 0.1957°W / 51.5090; -0.1957 (Carnival Elephant)	2003	Nadim Karam		Sculpture	—	[50]
	Two Carnival Figures	On roof of Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate 51.5090°N 0.1956°W / 51.5090; -0.1956 (Two Carnival Figures)	2003	Nadim Karam		Architectural sculptures	—	[50]

South Kensington

Main article: South Kensington

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Artist / designer	Architect / other	Type	Designation	Notes
More images	Statue of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala	Queen's Gate 51.5013°N 0.1803°W / 51.5013; -0.1803 (Statue of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala)	1891	Joseph Edgar Boehm	—	Equestrian statue	Grade II	Originally stood in Waterloo Place; moved to its current site in 1921. A replica of the statue to Napier in Kolkata. The boundary line with the City of Westminster bisects the length of this statue.[7] In 2004 the artist Eleonora Aguiari wrapped the statue in bright red tape as a comment on Britain's imperialist past.[8]
	Bust of Julius Wernher	Royal School of Mines 51.4999°N 0.1757°W / 51.4999; -0.1757 (Bust of Julius Wernher)	1910	Paul Raphael Montford	Aston Webb	Bust	Grade II	[51]
	Bust of Alfred Beit	Royal School of Mines 51.4999°N 0.1758°W / 51.4999; -0.1758 (Bust of Alfred Beit)	1910	Paul Raphael Montford	Aston Webb	Bust	Grade II	[51]
	War memorial	Outside St Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate 1.4932°N 0.1783°W / 1.4932; -0.1783 (St Augustine's Church War Memorial)	After 1918	?		Calvary		[52]
More images	Yalta Memorial (Twelve Responses to Tragedy)	Yalta Memorial Garden, Cromwell Road 51.4957°N 0.1724°W / 51.4957; -0.1724 (Yalta Memorial)	1986	Angela Conner			—	Replaced original version of 1981, destroyed by vandals in 1982.
More images	Statue of Béla Bartók	South Kensington tube station 51.4937°N 0.17381°W / 51.4937; -0.17381 (Statue of Béla Bartók)	2004	Imre Varga	—	Statue	—	The statue, a copy of one in Budapest, faces the house on Sydney Place where the composer stayed on several visits to London.[53]
More images	Memorial to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami	Darwin Centre courtyard, Natural History Museum 51.4963°N 0.1784°W / 51.4963; -0.1784 (Memorial to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami)	2011	—	Carmody Groarke Architects	Memorial	—	Unveiled 6 July 2011 by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.[54] 4.1m³ of granite with one corner cut away, the largest single block of stone to be transported in Great Britain since the building of Stonehenge. Michael Holland, the memorial's principal organiser, lost his mother, wife and daughter to the tsunami.[55]
More images	Statue of Alfred Russel Wallace	Natural History Museum. Originally outside the Darwin Centre 2 building, near the wildlife garden, later moved indoors [56]	2013	Anthony Smith	—	Statue	—	Unveiled 7 November 2013, the centenary of Wallace’s death, by David Attenborough. The statue depicts Wallace at the moment of his discovery of the golden birdwing butterfly in the Bacan Islands of Ind­o­nesia.[57]
	Fern Diplodocus	Evolution Garden, Natural History Museum	2024	—	Factum Arte and Structure Workshop	Sculpture	—	Unveiled 16 July 2024. A bronze cast of the famous specimen Dippy; the name was chosen by local school­children.[58][59]
	Hypsilophodon	Evolution Garden, Natural History Museum	2024	—		Sculpture	—	[58]

Victoria and Albert Museum

• 
  Sculpture above the main entrance to the museum; the architect was Aston Webb.
• 
  Detail of two of Alfred Drury's relief panels above the main portal. The full inscription is taken from Joshua Reynolds's Discourses: "The excellence of every art must consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose".
• 
  Statue of William Morris by Arthur George Walker on the Exhibition Road façade

Subject	Notes	Type	Location	Date	Sculptor	Source
Queen Victoria	—	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
Prince Albert	—	Statue	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
Saint George	—	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
Saint Michael	—	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
9 allegorical figures	—	Relief panels	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
Inspiration and Knowledge	—	Statues in niches	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Alfred Drury	[60]
Truth and Beauty	—	Reliefs in spandrels	Cromwell Road façade	1905	George Frampton	[60]
Edward VII	—	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	William Goscombe John	[60]
Alexandra of Denmark	—	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	William Goscombe John	[60]
Grinling Gibbons	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	William Silver Frith	[61]
John Bacon	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	William Silver Frith	[62]
John Flaxman	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Bertram Pegram	[63]
Francis Leggatt Chantrey	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Bertram Pegram	[64]
John Henry Foley	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	James Gamble	[60]
Alfred Stevens	Sculptor	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	James Gamble	[65]
William Hogarth	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Reuben Sheppard	[66]
Joshua Reynolds	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Reuben Sheppard	[67]
Thomas Gainsborough	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Stanley Nicholson Babb	[68]
George Romney	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Stanley Nicholson Babb	[69]
Richard Cosway	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Ernest Gillick	[70]
J. M. W. Turner	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Ernest Gillick	[71]
John Constable	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Vincent Hill	[72]
George Frederic Watts	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Richard Reginald Goulden	[73]
Frederic, Lord Leighton	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Gilbert Bayes	[74]
John Everett Millais	Painter	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	James Stevenson ("Myrander")	[60]
William of Wykeham	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	J. Wenlock Rollins	[75]
John Thorpe	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	J. Wenlock Rollins	[65]
Inigo Jones	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Oliver Wheatley	[60]
Christopher Wren	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Oliver Wheatley	[76]
William Chambers	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Gilbert Bayes	[77]
Charles Barry	Architect	Statue in niche	Cromwell Road façade	1905	Gilbert Bayes	[78]
Saint Dunstan	Craftsman	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Frank Lynn Jenkins	[60]
William Torell	Metalworker	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Frank Lynn Jenkins	[60]
William Caxton	Printer	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Paul Raphael Montford	[60]
George Heriot	Goldsmith	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Paul Raphael Montford	[60]
Huntingdon Shaw	Smith	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Abraham Broadbent	[60]
Thomas Tompion	Clockmaker	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Abraham Broadbent	[60]
Thomas Chippendale	Furniture maker	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Albert Hodge	[60]
Josiah Wedgwood	Potter	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Albert Hodge	[60]
Roger Payne	Bookbinder	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Arthur George Walker	[60]
William Morris	Textile designer	Statue in niche	Exhibition Road façade	1905	Arthur George Walker	[60]

See also

• List of public art in Kensington Gardens