Friday 6 August 2010

The Four Elements


I was struck by these sculptures that appeared recently on a wall next to the new Willis Building in Lime Street in the City of London. A little research revealed that they aren't new, but were taken from the previous building on the site, built for Lloyds in the 1950s, but placed so high as to be virtually invisible.

They are by the Nottingham-born sculptor James Woodford (1893-1976). The name wasn't familiar to me, but I had come across some of his works before. He was a member of the Royal Academy, and received commisions for work for at Norwich City Hall and the Headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place and made the "Queen's Beasts" in plaster for the coronation in 1953, which he later replicated in stone for Kew Gardens.