Posts Tagged With: statue

Edinburgh Odds and Ends

This post goes through all the random statues, streets and buildings that don’t quite amount to enough for their own posts. To start with, we have this statue of the world’s only consulting detective. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. That building is no longer there but nearby to where it stood is this quite nicely done statue of his creation. The statue was sculpted by Gerald Ogilvie Laing and was moved to its new home on the traffic island here in 2023 after being taken from its original position for renovation.

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Categories: Edinburgh, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Wild Table of Love, Paddington, London

At the entrance to Paddington Station at the corner of Eastbourne Terrace and Praed Street can be found this lovely bronze sculpture called The Wild Table of Love. It’s the creation of British and Australian artists Gillie and Marc. It’s a very well detailed sculpture intended to provoke thoughts of unity and protection of the ecosystem.

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Categories: England, London | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Standing In This Place sculpture by Rachel Carter, Nottingham

Earlier today I went into Nottingham city centre to take photos of this recently unveiled sculpture in The Green Heart, Nottingham’s newest green space near the Central Library and on the way up from the train station. The statue represents a white lace worker and a black enslaved woman greeting each other. As someone from a long line of men and women who worked in the Nottingham lace trade from working in factories to designing lace patterns the fact that none of their work would have been possible without the cotton supplied by enslaved people has never been lost on me but it’s not something that gets highlighted as much as it should and this sculpture goes some way to rectifying that as well as emphasising the contributions made by women to the economy and society in general.

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Categories: England, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Paddington in Paddington

Last October’s trip to London got off to a rocky start when my hotel cancelled on me less than 12 hours before check in. Although I was offered an alternative it wasn’t in a particularly convenient location for what I had planned so I ended up doing some pretty intensive searching myself that lead me to a hotel offering a last minute deal near Hyde Park and Paddington Train Station. This was quite handy as it allowed me to finally visit the Paddington statue at the station and, as I was to discover, another temporary Paddington statue in the area.

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Categories: England, London | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Allan Sly Sculptures, London

On my most recent visit to London I did a fair bit of walking around neighbourhoods I hadn’t spent much time in before. This lead to me taking photographs of two sculptures that turned out to be by the same sculptor. Allan Sly is an English sculptor and senior lecturer at Wimbledon College of Arts. The first sculpture I came across also happened to be one of his earliest public artworks. Located just outside Edgware Road Tube Station The Window Cleaner was installed in 1990 – he’s staring up at the tall Capital House building which has a lot of windows, and wondering how he’s going to manage them with his small ladder.

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Cowane’s Hospital, Stirling

Located next to the Church of the Holy Rude, Cowane’s Hospital is a 17th centruy almshouse. It’s named for John Cowane, a businessman who left money for its establishment in 1637. The money he left was to allow for twelve elderly members of the Merchant Guildry of Stirling to live rent free in their old age.

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Categories: Scotland, Stirling | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

National Galleries of Scotland: The National, Edinburgh

The National (as it’s recently been renamed) was another one of the those places I hadn’t managed to get to on my previous visit to the city so I made sure to pop in this time. I arrived in Edinburgh just at the right time as they had recently revamped the building with newly opened galleries specifically to highlight Scottish artists in their collection which I was particularly eager to see. Free to enter the gallery can be found just off Princes Street by the Scott Monument.

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Categories: Edinburgh, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Old Town Cemetery/Valley Cemetery, Stirling

There’s been a burial ground around the Church of the Holy Rude since 1129 but many of the members of the city were buried beneath the church floor until the practice was stopped in 1623 – because of the stench of the rotting corpses! The Valley Cemetery was opened in 1857 for the overflow of the church and the town of Stirling as a whole. It was designed to be an attractive place to visit with paths wide enough for carriages. It expanded so much that it spread into what became known as Mars Place Cemetery. This in turn lead to the adjoining cemetery coming to be known as The Old Town Cemetery.

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Categories: Scotland, Stirling | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Like a lot of people I was gripped by the Paris Olympics and Paralympics over the summer – watching sports I’ve never even heard of is always compelling. When I was planning my trip to Cambridge I noted that the Fitzwilliam was putting on an exhibition about the previous Paris Olympics that took place in 1924. The exhibition was free/pay what you wish.

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Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle was another one of my day trips from Edinburgh. It was an easy train ride from Waverly Station lasting around 50 minutes and then a 15-20 minute walk from the station to the castle. Do note that the walk is mostly uphill, it’s not particularly challenging but if you have mobility issues you can catch a bus up to the castle. I had pre-booked my ticket which are timed entrance (as a member of English Heritage my ticket was free); generally an adult ticket is £17.50 online, £19.50 if bought when you arrive.

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Categories: Scotland, Stirling | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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