Dr Barnardo's Memorial

Last updated

Memorial to Dr Barnardo
Memorial to Dr Barnardo.jpg
Dr Barnardo's Memorial
Artist George Frampton
Completion date1908
TypeSculpture
Medium Bronze
Subject Thomas John Barnardo
Dimensions4.8 m(16 ft)
Location London
Coordinates 51°35′10″N0°05′03″E / 51.586°N 0.0843°E / 51.586; 0.0843
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameDr Barnardo's Memorial at Barnardo's
Designated22 February 1979
Reference no.1081001

The Memorial to Dr Barnardo by George Frampton, at Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge, commemorates the founder of the Barnardo's children's charity. Born in Dublin into a Sephardic Jewish family, Thomas John Barnardo moved to the East End of London in 1866 where he established a chain of orphanages that developed into the Barnardo's charity. He died in 1905 and, in a move unusual for the time, was cremated; his ashes were interred in front of Cairn's House, the original building of his Barkingside children's village. In 1908, a memorial was raised on the site, the sculpture being undertaken by George Frampton, who worked without a fee. The memorial was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1979 and upgraded to II* in 2010.

Contents

Dr Barnado

Thomas John Barnado was born in Dublin in 1845. Moving to London in 1866 to train as a doctor, he was profoundly affected by the child poverty he witnessed in the East End of London and, in 1867, opened his first ragged school. [1] By the late 1870s, Barnado, working with his wife Syrie, had established over 50 orphanages and schools for poor children in London, including his Girls' Village at Barkingside, in what is now the London Borough of Redbridge. [2] The Barkingside development followed the concept of a 'village' environment, rather than an institutional approach, first established at children's homes at Farningham, Kent, in 1865, and at Princess Mary's Village Home for Little Girls at Addlestone, Surrey, in 1870. [3] The Barkingside village was also originally the Barnados' home, which they received as a wedding present. [4] Barnado died in 1905 [5] at his home in Surbiton and, following a funeral attended by very large crowds and a subsequent cremation, his ashes were interred at Barkingside. [6]

Architecture and description

The sculpture was undertaken by George Frampton, later famous for his statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens [7] and his memorial to W. S. Gilbert on the Victoria Embankment. [8] Frampton donated his design without charge. [9] The memorial forms an exedra, with a large, semi-circular, stone seat flanking the central plinth. The base has figures in bronze of three children, with a bust of Barnado above that, and culminates in a figure of a woman, representing Charity, embracing two further children. [10] The base is inscribed with a quotation from Barnado's will: 'I HOPE TO DIE AS I HAVE LIVED/ IN THE HUMBLE BUT ASSURED FAITH OF/ JESUS CHRIST/ AS/ MY SAVIOUR, MY MASTER AND MY KING'. The walls that form the seat are also inscribed, to the left: 'SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME/ FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN'; and to the right: 'IN AS MUCH AS YE DID IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST/ OF THESE MY BRETHREN YE DID IT UNTO ME'. A small memorial set into the base commemorates Syrie Barnado, who died in 1944. [10]

The memorial, described in Pevsner as "outstanding", [11] was unveiled in 1908 by the Duchess of Albany. [12] It was listed at Grade II in 1979, and upgraded to Grade II* in 2010. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Borough of Redbridge</span> London borough in United Kingdom

The London Borough of Redbridge is a London borough established in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas John Barnardo</span> Philanthropist, founder and director of homes for poor children

Thomas John Barnardo was an Irish-born philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children. From the foundation of the first Barnardo's home in 1867 to the date of Barnardo's death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in.

Albert Toft was a British sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnardo's</span> British charity

Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same groups. It is the UK's largest children's charity, in terms of charitable expenditure. Its headquarters are in Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Frampton</span> British sculptor (1860-1928)

Sir George James Frampton, was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combining different materials such as marble and bronze in a single piece. While his later works were more traditional in style, Frampton had a prolific career in which he created many notable public monuments, including several statues of Queen Victoria and later, after World War I, a number of war memorials. These included the Edith Cavell Memorial in London, which, along with the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens are possibly Frampton's best known works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barkingside</span> Area of Ilford in east London, England

Barkingside is an area in Ilford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It includes the major road junction of Fullwell Cross which also gives its name to the locality near that roundabout. The area is situated 10.6 miles (17km) north east of Charing Cross.

<i>The Likes of Us</i> 1965 musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Likes of Us is musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice, and a book by Leslie Thomas. It is based on the story of Thomas John Barnardo, a philanthropist who founded homes for destitute children.

Edward Alfred Briscoe Drury was a British architectural sculptor and artist active in the New Sculpture movement. During a long career Drury created a great number of decorative figures such as busts and statuettes plus larger monuments, war memorials, statues of royalty and architectural pieces. During the opening years of the 20th-century he was among the foremost architectural sculptors active in Britain and in that period created the series of works in central London for which he is perhaps now best known. These include the figures on the Old War Office building in Whitehall, elements of the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum and four of the colossal statues on Vauxhall Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snaresbrook Crown Court</span> Historic building in Snaresbrook, London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti–Air War Memorial</span> Memorial in Woodford Green, London

The Anti–Air War Memorial is located in Woodford Green, London, England. It was commissioned and erected by the socialist suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst in 1935 as "a protest against war in the air". It is Britain's first anti-war memorial, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of Ferdinand Foch, London</span>

The Equestrian statue of Ferdinand Foch stands in Lower Grosvenor Gardens, London. The sculptor was Georges Malissard and the statue is a replica of another raised in Cassel, France. Foch, appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces on the Western Front in the Spring of 1918, was widely seen as the architect of Germany's ultimate defeat and surrender in November 1918. Among many other honours, he was made an honorary Field marshal in the British Army, the only French military commander to receive such a distinction. Following Foch's death in March 1929, a campaign was launched to erect a statue in London in his memory. The Foch Memorial Committee chose Malissard as the sculptor, who produced a replica of his 1928 statue of Foch at Cassel. The statue was unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 5 June 1930. Designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958, the statue's status was raised to Grade II* in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of William III, London</span> Statue in St Jamess Square, London

The equestrian statue of William III by John Bacon Junior stands in St James's Square in central London. It is modelled on an earlier statue of the king by John Michael Rysbrack in Queen Square, Bristol. Funding for the London statue was provided in the will of Samuel Travers, M.P., dated 1724, but nothing was done to progress the plan for a further seventy years. A design for the monument was drawn up in 1794 by Bacon's father, John Bacon Senior, but this was not executed and the commission passed to Bacon Jr., under whose direction the statue was finally erected in 1808. The statue is a Grade I listed structure.

<i>Gorilla</i> (sculpture) Sculpture of Guy the Gorilla, Crystal Palace Park, London

The Gorilla sculpture by David Wynne stands beside the Lower Lake in Crystal Palace Park, in Bromley in south-east London. Completed in 1961 and installed in 1962, the black marble sculpture depicts Guy the Gorilla, a western lowland gorilla brought from West Africa to London Zoo in 1947. It became a Grade II listed structure in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Sullivan Memorial</span> Memorial in London

The Memorial to Arthur Sullivan by William Goscombe John stands in Victoria Embankment Gardens in the centre of London. It was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladstone Memorial, London</span> Statue in Westminster, London

The Gladstone Memorial on the Strand, London is a bronze sculpture of the British statesman, created by Hamo Thornycroft between 1899-1905. The statue was erected as the national memorial to Gladstone and shows him in the robes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The figure stands on a plinth surrounded by allegorical figures depicting four of the Virtues, Courage, Brotherhood, Education and Aspiration. The memorial is a Grade II listed structure.

References

  1. "Our history". Barnardo's. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  2. "Thomas Barnardo". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  3. Higginbottom, Peter. "Girls' Village Home, Barkingside, Ilford, Essex". www.childrenshomes.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  4. "The birthplace of Barnardo's". Essex Life. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  5. Historic England. "Children's Church and Lych Gate At Barnado's (1393778)". National Heritage List for England .
  6. "Barnardo's news". Barnardo's. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  7. Historic England. "Peter Pan Statue (West of Serpentine) (1217595)". National Heritage List for England .
  8. Historic England. "Memorial to Sir W S Gilbert (1237829)". National Heritage List for England .
  9. Darke 1991, p. 192.
  10. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Dr Barnado's Memorial at Barnado's (1081001)". National Heritage List for England .
  11. Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2007, p. 326.
  12. "PMSA". pmsa.org.uk. Archived from the original on 1 February 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2019.

Sources