Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Statue News
Surprisingly, the statue of John Betjeman unveiled at St Pancras International doesn't look too bad - perhaps because it isn't striving for any kind of heroic or monumental effect. It's certainly a vast improvement on the St Pancras monstrosity, which seems to depict the arrival at the fine new terminal of some kind of alien life form. Betjeman also beats that other recent nadir of public statuary, the Mandela statue (as I remarked at the time, he looks as if he's just been coated by a passing muckspreader). And to think that London once had some of the finest public statuary in the world...
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
It still has, I think, just not new.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. I reckon the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner's about as good as it gets...
ReplyDeleteI like the statuary around Trafalgar Square, including the limbless lady.
ReplyDelete"Doesn't look too bad"; that's a bit grudging, isn't it, Nige. To me, it looks superb, wonderfully in keeping with its surroundings, capturing the sense of amazement Betjeman felt on viewing that magnificent structure. Is your view of Betjeman as poet, rather than defender of Britain's great engineering past, holding you back? It's surely down to Betjeman, more than any other individual, that there remains a St Pancras. If he'd shrugged his shoulders and mumbled "What's the point" in the 60s, Bryan wouldn't have had the subject for that wonderful piece he wrote in May, 2005.
ReplyDeleteI love it but I after many years spent listening to reporters coming out with the usual pseudo-intellectual nonsense about the eyesores funded by Ken Livingstone, I find it hard to express what I think about it. I keep wanting to say that it makes me 'reassess' the nature of hats in a station context, 'challenges' my notions of overcoats, and 'destigmatises' portly gentlemen rushing for trains.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I think the statue came out pretty darn good.
ReplyDeleteI've only just picked up on the 'St Pancras monstrosity', having been so taken yesterday by the Betjeman statue. Monstrosity it certainly is. If they had to celebrate a great meeting place in this way, it should have been a statue of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard looking longingly at one another, contemplating 'what ifs' and 'if only', all pent-up British frustration. It makes sense. Blow up the 'monstrosity' and replace it with Cele and Trev.
ReplyDeleteAs for the monstrosity, all I can say is:
ReplyDeleteOh, for gods sake - get a motel room!
Wise words as ever, Randy. I believe there is a Travellodge not far from St Pancras or is it a Comfort inn?
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