The statue of John Betjeman at

St Pancras railway station St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...

, London is a depiction in bronze by the sculptor

Martin Jennings Martin Jennings, FRBS (born 31 July 1957, in Chichester, West Sussex) a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statu ...

. The statue was designed and cast in 2007 and was unveiled on 12 November 2007 by Betjeman's daughter,

Candida Lycett Green Candida Rose Lycett Green (née Betjeman; 22 September 194219 August 2014) was a British author who wrote sixteen books including ''English Cottages'', ''Goodbye London'', ''The Perfect English House'', ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' and ''The ...

and the then

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Andrew Motion to commemorate Betjeman and mark the opening of St Pancras International as the London terminus of the

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

link between

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

mainland Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

. The location memorialises the connection between St Pancras station and Betjeman, an early and lifelong advocate of

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

Background

John Betjeman

The poet John Betjeman (1906–1984) was an early supporter of Victorian architecture and a founding member of the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK amenity society and membership organisation that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. It is a registered ...

. At the time of its founding in 1957, appreciation of Victorian architecture and its architects was at its nadir: critics wrote of "the nineteenth century architectural tragedy", ridiculed "the uncompromising ugliness" of the era's buildings and attacked the "sadistic hatred of beauty" of its architects. The commonly-held view had been expressed by

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

in his 1933 novel, ''

Summer Moonshine First US edition ''Summer Moonshine'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 8 October 1937 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 11 February 1938 by Herbert Jenkins, London.McIlvaine, E., ...

''; "Whatever may be said in favour of the Victorians, it is pretty generally admitted that few of them were to be trusted within reach of a trowel and a pile of bricks." The Victorian Society met with an early defeat when, in 1961,

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

destroyed the

Euston Arch The Euston Arch, built in 1837 (and demolished in 1962), was the original entrance to Euston station, facing onto Drummond Street, London. The arch was demolished when the station was rebuilt in the 1960s, but much of the original stone was later ...

Philip Hardwick Philip Hardwick (15 June 1792 in London – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch ...

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

entrance to

Euston Station Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

. British Railways proved a perennial opponent and in the mid-1960s, they announced plans to demolish both St Pancras Station and the attached Midland Hotel, and King's Cross station. As vice-chairman of the society, Betjeman led the campaign to save St Pancras. In June 1966 he wrote to

Sir John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...

, noted architectural historian and curator of the

Soane Museum Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...

; "would you be prepared to write an appreciative article on it? You count and I don't". Summerson's initial response was unsupportive, "every time I look at the building I'm consumed with admiration in the cleverness of the detail, and every time I leave it I wonder why as a whole it is so nauseating. I really don't think one could go to a Minister and say this is a great piece of architecture". Summerson subsequently recanted, and his support was instrumental in achieving Grade I listed building status for the station and hotel in 1967, a designation which ensured its survival.

George Gilbert Scott

On his death in 1878, George Gilbert Scott was accorded a funeral and burial in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, a mark of recognition for the foremost architect of his age. He left a fortune of £120,000 and a substantial legacy of churches, cathedrals, houses, and public buildings. His prodigious output had been made possible by his running the largest architectural practice in Victorian England. When his attention was fully applied, Scott's best work was among the most distinguished the Victorian era produced; these include the

Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial, directly north of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens, London, was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic ...

, the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

and the Midland Hotel. But even before his death, Scott's reputation had begun to decline; a furious attack by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

on Scott's proposed restoration of

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of Nor ...

led to the formation of the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

. By the time of Betjeman's campaign to save his station, Scott's reputation was at its lowest; the critic Reginald Turnor belatedly thanked

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

for his "obstinacy, which spared us a St Pancras in

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

St Pancras Station

As reviled as its creator for much of the 20th century, in the 21st, St Pancras was renovated in a multi-million pound, and much admired, restoration. Its significance is recognised, Simon Bradley describing it as, "this greatest of High Victorian secular buildings" and its

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

listing suggesting that it may be "Britain's most impressive station", with only the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

terminus at

Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

being posited as its rival as, "the largest and handsomest railway-station in England".

The statue

The statue of John Betjeman is by the sculptor

. Of bronze and larger than life-size, it was cast by Pangolin Editions at their Gloucestershire

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

. It shows Betjeman clad in suit, mackintosh and trilby hat, capturing his "shabby appearance, shoelace and scruffy collar are undone...knotted string for one shoelace". The poet holds his hat as he gazes up at the roof of the station. The 2.10 m (6.9 ft) statue stands on a plinth of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

with words from some of Betjeman's poems inscribed in the base. The central text reads: "''And in the shadowless unclouded glare, Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where, A misty sealine meets the wash of air. / John Betjeman, 1906 – 1984, poet, who saved this glorious station''". The statue was unveiled by the poet's daughter,

and the

Andrew Motion on 12 November 2007.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{Portal bar, London, Visual arts 2007 sculptures

Betjeman, John Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...