A Churchillian Audit

How many London memorials does the divisive Prime Minister have?

A word-based portrait of Churchill in Croydon. A local landmark, it was removed in 2021. Image: Matt Brown

You won’t be able to avoid Winston Churchill in the next few weeks. 30 November 2024 marks 150 years since his birth; 24 January 2025 marks 60 years since his death. There will be fuss.

The anniversaries will see a plethora of broadcasts, newspaper columns and even Substack posts reflecting on his complicated legacy. Churchill is lionised and demonised like few other figures. He’s been called the Greatest Briton, but also stands accused of racism, white supremacy and catastrophic decision making. Some would even see his statues pulled down. You’ll hear that a few times over the coming weeks, I suspect.

I don’t wish to wade directly into the treacherous waters of iconoclasm. Instead, I’ll paddle on the foreshore (fight on the beaches?) with a little side-commentary. Hypothetically, if we were to listen to those who want to cancel Churchill, if we were to remove all his statues and memorials… from the landing grounds and the fields and the streets… well, just how much work would it be?

So today’s article is a Churchillian audit, rounding up every memorial and reference I can find. I welcome additions in the comments.

Churchillian statues, busts… and astronomical clocks?

Click or tap for a slightly larger version. All images by Matt Brown, except (1) which is public domain.

Winston Churchill has three London statues in public places, along with at least two others in prominent indoor locations. He also embodies a cumbrous bust in Wanstead, and sits at the centre of the cosmos in the City of London.

1. Hands-on-hips Churchill: To see our first Churchill, you need to go on a public tour of the Houses of Parliament (or get yourself duly elected… whichever is easiest). Here, in the Members’ Lobby, you’ll find four Prime Ministerial statues: Lloyd-George, Attlee, Thatcher and Churchill. Our man stands mid-stride with hands on hips, as though attempting stage 6 of the Macarena. This charismatic statue was crafted by Oscar Nemon and unveiled in 1970. You can’t see it in the picture, but Churchill’s right foot is well burnished from the good-luck rubs of a thousand MPs.

2. Fat-necked Churchill: Ever the exceptionalist, Winston Churchill’s bust in Wanstead lacks shoulders, is 40% neck and sits upon a stone salvaged from the old Waterloo Bridge. It’s a 1966 effort from Signor Froni, and stands outside the area’s former Conservative Club (now a restaurant). Churchill was the local MP from 1924 to 1964.

3. Bosky Churchill: Another constituency commemoration can be found in Woodford Green. This one, by David McFall, was unveiled in the presence of Churchill himself in 1959.

4. Chummy Churchill: Known variously as “Allies” or “50 Years of Peace”, this double-sculpture on New Bond Street shows Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt seated on a bench. The set-up invites passers-by to sit between the war leaders and, I don’t know, pretend to be Stalin or something. The duo have been here since 1995, installed a half century after the end of the Second World War. They were created by Lawrence Holofcener, along with six close copies, now spread to the four winds. I just wish he’d put some metallic drapery behind them, so we could make jokes about an Iron Curtain.

5. Famous Churchill: Mention “the Churchill statue” and this is the one most people will picture. Sculpted by Ivor Roberts-Jones and unveiled in 1973, it stands in Parliament Square directly opposite “Big Ben”. Churchill personally selected this spot for his own memorial, an egotistical thought experiment I’m sure we’ve all indulged in (mine would be on an obscure part of the Thames foreshore, seen only by the intrepid, and washed over by the tide twice a day like some executed pirate. You?). The Parliament Square Churchill is particularly noted as a target for protestors. In 2000, the statue received a bloody mouth and turf mohawk, while in 2020 the words “was a racist” were scrawled beneath his name.

6. Manspreading Churchill: Very few statues depict their subjects on seats, but this is Churchill’s second. It lurks within Guildhall in the City of London, a space in which Churchill spoke on many occasions. Indeed, he was there to unveil it in 1955:

The Guildhall statue is another by Oscar Nemon, who also contributed the one inside the Houses of Parliament. This prolific sculptor also gave London the statue of Monty on Whitehall, and the likeness of Freud in Hampstead.

7. Sun God Churchill: Critics who argue that Churchill is over-celebrated need only look to Cannon Street for ammunition. Here the statesman is represented on the astronomical clock of Bracken House. And by “represented” I mean “put at the centre of the universe like some kind of all-powerful sun god”. Just like they do in North Korea.

Image: Matt Brown

I’m not sure the circular and rectangular apertures are for. See them, on the tongues of his outer corona? I wonder, do select pieces of Churchillian anatomy pop out, in the manner of a cuckoo-clock? Best not think about it.

Bracken House is named after Brendan Bracken, a key ally of the PM during the Second World War. In tribute to this relationship, Churchill’s grimacing countenance was built into the clock in 1959 by designers Frank Dobson and Philip Bentham. The bizarre imagery would go on to inspire the sun-baby from Teletubbies [citation needed].

A stack of plaques

2 and 3 by Matt Brown, additional plaques courtesy of the wonderful London Remembers

I know of six discs commemorating Churchill across London. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more exist, however.

1. Childhood home: Churchill came from an aristocratic background and lived all his long life in comfortable circumstances (well, apart from the bunkers and military digs and stuff). One of his earliest homes is marked by a City of Westminster plaque at 29 St James’s Place, literally next door to the palatial Spencer House, owned by his wider family.

2. Minimalist memorial: This simple plaque on 33 Ecclestone Square marks the “just got married” home of Winston and Clementine. Their first children were born in the house. Churchill was living here when he first became a household name as Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty.

3. Out of office: Most of Churchill’s homes are still with us, but his residence in Sussex Square, Paddington was demolished in the 1960s. This was Churchill’s London home during his brief stint without a parliamentary seat (1922-24).

4. Build-up to war: This property on Morpeth Terrace near Westminster Cathedral must have seen some dark conversations. Churchill used it as his London home throughout the 1930s during the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy. Not long after the outbreak of war, Churchill was declared Prime Minister and thereafter considered 10 Downing Street his central residence.

5. End of days: Churchill’s main home was, of course, Chartwell in Kent. However, he always retained a London pad, and this property in Hyde Park Gate lasted from the end of the war to his death (although it was leased out during his premiership of 1951-55). Indeed, Churchill breathed his last in this building on 10 January 1965, aged 90.

6. A bonus disc: Churchill has several other plaques around town. This one on Caxton Hall near Victoria marks the venue where he conducted many of his wartime press conferences.

These are just the disc-shaped ones. A prominent marker stone, bearing the words “Remember Winston Churchill” forms part of the floor of Westminster Abbey. A smaller marker in nearby Westminster Hall shows where his body lay in state in 1965. Meanwhile, St Paul’s Cathedral unveiled a memorial screen and plaque back in 2004… when the newborn Londonist website had this to say.

Finally, a plaque commemorating Clementine Hozier, who would go on to become Mrs Churchill and later Baroness Spencer-Churchill, can be found in Abingdon Villas, Kensington, where she lived before her marriage.

Oddities about town

The memorials shown above are barely the tip of the cigar. Winston Churchill’s legacy is remembered all over London, in myriad ways. Here are a selection from my own explorations:

1. MV Havengore: This sleek vessel of 1956 was originally launched as a hydrographic survey ship. It is much better known as the craft that carried the body of Winston Churchill during his 1965 State Funeral — you know, the one where all the Thames cranes bowed in respect to the passing statesman. Today, the Havengore is usually moored at St Katharine Docks or nearby Hermitage Moorings. It is privately owned, but can occasionally be visited during Open House weekends. It carries a plaque marking the position of Churchill’s coffin.

2. The Churchill Arms: One of London’s most celebrated pubs, the Churchill stands between Notting Hill and Kensington. It’s famed the world over thanks to an extraordinary medley of hanging baskets and aerial shrubbery, plus the glow-up these receive at Christmas. Step through the floral event horizon and you’ll find an equally eccentric interior of random pub clutter. All of this has given the Churchill a perennial presence on Instagram and TikTok.

3. Woodford Green Village Sign: London has a nourishing supply of quirky village signs in the Outer Boroughs. One of the best can be found at Woodford Green in east London. It features the statue of Churchill mentioned above, alongside the local church, the stereotypical (for village signs) cricket green, a tree, and a cow. I’m not sure if this is a notable cow or a generic cow, but it looks like it’s about to charge the wicket.

4. Naughty boy: Besides his political and artistic talents, Churchill was also an accomplished writer. He even won the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” One of his earliest inscriptions can be found in the Fourth Form Room at Harrow School. Here, a young Churchill scratched his name into the wooden panelling, along with the date 1892. Tagging the woodwork has a long tradition at Harrow. Three of Churchill’s fellow future-PMs — Palmerston, Perceval and Peel — can also be found on the walls, along with Byron, Sheridan and Trollope.

5. Churchillian mosaics: Chingford Assembly Hall is decorated with an exceptional mosaic showing people and places important to the local area. It’s by Gary Drostle, who also crafted a glorious mosaic for Sutton High Street. Churchill features prominently on the Chingford artwork, again because of his long-serving parliamentary representation for the area. The mosaic also features Queen Elizabeth I and her hunting lodge and many other local sites. This isn’t the only mosaic image of Winston in the capital. Look to the floor in the entrance of the National Gallery and you’ll find this intriguing image of the war leader, picked out in tesserae by Boris Anrep.

6. Churchill’s smoking seat: JJ Fox on St James’s Street is London’s most notable cigar shop. Churchill was, of course, a regular customer. The shop’s basement contains a small museum to the smoking arts. Among its furniture is a leather arm chair that once belonged to the world’s most famous cigar lover.

Churchillian dedications

Bromley in south-east London dedicated its theatre and library to the big man. Image: Matt Brown

THAT was the easy bit. To truly audit this man’s London footprint would need a full research grant. Half the estates built since the war will contain a Churchill Road, Close, Way or Avenue. Pimlico has a whole estate, Churchill Gardens, named after him. Elsewhere, we find schools, colleges, hotels, wine bars and chip shops that trade on the Churchillian name. Quite a few memorial trees, too.

His most notable dedication is probably the Churchill War Rooms, the bunker off Whitehall used as a command centre during the Second World War. Known as the Cabinet War Rooms for much of its cultural life, the visitor attraction rebranded as the more tourist-enticing Churchill War Rooms in 2010.

All this is just his London stuff. Were we to totally cancel Winston Churchill, then much, much more would have to be deleted. Canada would need to rename a lake; Australia an island. The US Navy must give up one of its destroyers; Cambridge one of its colleges. France alone would have to rename 15 streets. Would Missouri send back the Christopher Wren church we shipped over in the 1960s, to commemorate Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech?

I promised an “audit” in the title to this piece. In truth, it would be impossible to innumerate every memorial and dedication to Sir Winston. If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “We haven’t counted them all yet.” Unlike Churchill, I’m quite happy to surrender.

---

Thanks for reading! As ever, please do leave a comment below, especially if you know of further Churchillian memorials in London (or beyond). Drop me a line any time on matt@londonist.com.