Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square is one of London's well known landmarks.Oscar Wilde reclines nearby. Freud's bust is in Swiss Cottage. Mandela is in Westminster. Florence Nightingale stands holding her lamp outside a London hospital on Waterloo Place. Handel had a statue erected in Vauxhall Gardens, central London during his lifetime. A statue of singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse is in Stables Market, Camden Town. What have we got in Harrow? Yesterday I discovered to my delight that a page on Harrow had been set up on Facebook. I posted on it that I wanted statues placed around Harrow:
1
Mrs Beeton, cookery and recipe pioneer, should stand in Hatch End, where she lived and died. A plaque to her is on the wall where her house was in The Broadway, still a broad or wide street.
2
Heath Robinson, the cartoonist, should have a statue in the Pinner Park or better still in the High Street, to draw attention to the museum devoted to him which has opened in Pinner this year.
3
W S Gilbert, who wrote the words, "I've got a little list ..." in his operetta, Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, was also a magistrate. His house where he lived in Victorian times is now a hotel but he should have a statue, somewhere prominent and central, perhaps Harrow.
4
Roger Bannister who won the race and established the record for the four minute mile, has a playing field named after him. He is still alive, in his eighties. If a statue of him takes as long as the Heath Robinson Museum to be established (twenty years of campaigning), he would be well over a hundred if he were still alive by the time his statue is up. It should show him running, Many pictures of him running must exist.
5
Crosse and Blackwell
They are both buried in All Saints church, Harrow Weald, with big mausoleums in the grounds near the entrance to the church. Blackwell's house has been demolished but his front garden is now a park on the Uxbridge Road (see one of my previous posts for pictures) and he gave land for St Anselm's church in Hatch End.
6
Screaming Lord Sutch
Great character. Has to have a statue in central Harrow.
7
Leefe Robinson
WWI hero. Buried in All Saint's church cemetery extension, across the Uxbridge Road opposite the church. The pub next door to the church was named Leefe Robinson and locals campaigned for new pub owners to preserve the name (and press cuttings about him inside the building, left of the doorway).
8
Winston Churchill
Writer of so many famous speeches. He inspired everybody to fight on in WWII. "Never, ever, ever give up." His statue is already outside Parliament in central London. Let's have another in Harrow.
In London in addition to our classic busts of people such as Kennedy, and a statue of Charlie Chaplin standing, we have modern statues such as:
a) The Australian mapmaker, Captain Matthew, and his cat on Euston station.
b) Artist Coneo who painted trains and stations with his palette on Waterloo station.
c) Sherlock Holmes standing wearing his distinctive deerstalker outside Baker Street.
d) Brunel in his high hat, his top hat, on Paddington station.
I would like to see statues all along St Anne's, or St George's shopping areas in Harrow, like they are all along Pietrowsky Street in Lodz, where you see a statue of Arthur Rubinstein, pianist, who was born in Lodz.
Many other famous people have lived or worked in Harrow.
Winston Churchill went to school in Harrow. A picture of him is on the Whitefriars glass in the Harrow Civic Centre, which is going to be demolished. I hope they preserve the glass, as well as the wall of tiles commemorating famous people and events, and the parlour's cabinet of gifts from various groups, from or to former mayors, and the marquetry on the wall in the parlour showing famous people of Harrow.
9
Byron
He wrote and went to school at Harrow on the Hill. His young daughter was buried in the church grounds, almost inside the church door.
10
Claire Rayner wrote in Harrow, a formidable woman and campaigner on health issues.
Central London has many more: Dick Whittington and his cat. Harrow is not short of famous people. We need statues of our heroes and heroines to inspire students and install pride and ambition in our residents and workers and visitors.
I want to keep this list in one place so I shall probably come back and update rather than starting another post on the same subject. Georgia Weston, Sue and others have commented on the Facebook page on Harrow.
Photo of sculpture of Arthur Rubinstein seated at the piano in Lodz, Poland, from Wikipedia.
Other photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author and photographer.
