Talk:List of public art in London

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London: Public art Low‑importance

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Comprehensive

The intention of this page is to create as comprehensive as possible a list of the public statuary of London. I have to date not been able to find such a list either in a book or on the web. The book by Lord Edward Gleichen may have been thorough in its day, but is now out of date; and Margaret Baker's more recent book covers more statues but still misses some out (such as that very strange group in the carriage drive south of Hyde Park, whose import I have never been able to discover). It is as yet very thin in content, but I hope that it will eventually be as complete as feasible. Jon Rob 13:51, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As the list gradually increases in size, it might be worth arranging it into groups, there are a number of options, by location (level of detail for this arrangement would ahve to vary depending on the, er, location, if you see my point), or by date, or some other criteria. In this process, the layout of the list could be modified into a tabular gallery format, for those pictures available, perhaps this would encourage people to take snaps while they are out and about, i would be but am temporarily without a caera :(anywya, just a few ideas. brzak (talk) 23:56, 24 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Scope

The former title "List of public statues in London" is a better idea. There are thousands of plaques, busts, water features, memorials and pieces of corporate art which will now dilute what was becoming an interesting list. A more meaningful field of reference might be public full length dipictions of people or animals Grim²³ ★ 20:08, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please note that an abstract Henry Moore work has been on this page since very early in the page's history. Another piece by him, not yet on this page, is very near Parliament Square and contributes to the area's visual interestingness as it plays off the more conventional statues. Wouldn't it be rather false to remove this but retain Rodin's Burghers of Calais, a work of figural sculpture but which was erected as a gesture towards high art, making it more of a piece with the Moore? I think the conflicting kinds of public sculpture – particularly on the South Bank – make the list more, not less interesting. I would draw the line at architectural and relief sculpture (of which there is tons in London) and plaques; busts, such as Nehru on India Place, I think are worthy of inclusion. I don't see why there shouldn't be a page where you can see, for instance, who made the mermen and maids on the Trafalgar Square fountains as well as Nelson himself. We could keep the size down by (eventually) diving the list up into pages by borough. Ham 17:16, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK, you've convinced me :) Grim²³ ★ 19:12, 23 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Breaking off

The list is getting very big, which is good, but in its current state it's very un-user friendly, with all the most familiar statues (in the City of Westminster) at the bottom. I propose we break the list page off into five pages for Central, North, East, South and West London. These would be as defined in the 2004–08 London plan. The divisions aren't ideal but this scheme doesn't cut up the boroughs like the other alternatives. (Though we could do that: see this, for instance. But I'd prefer to keep this simple to begin with.)

The names of these pages are going to be cumbersome: List of public sculpture and memorials in Central London. I'm going to be bold and suggest that List of public art in Central London would be better. Ham 18:01, 13 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would be even bolder, and suggest splitting this list by London borough instead of creating sub-regions. We do this with all other London lists and our categorisation is also organised this way. MRSC (talk) 11:40, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Looking good! Ham 16:27, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations

I just wanted to say that this list is fantastic--a real model for what other cities could be doing! We've featured it on our project page for Wikipedia Saves Public Art. This project aims to encourage folks to put information into WP about public artworks. We'd love it if anyone here would become part of that project, either by reading through the project page and making suggestions for the creation of individual articles or for making lists of public art in their own cities.

Here in the U.S. we have a slight advantage in that in the 1990s many cities were surveyed through a Federal program called SOS!, that project really was the conceptual basis for our project. But the folks that are in the project are not affiliated with the government, but just cultural enthusiasts.

Please consider becoming members of this project and know that you're welcome to have input and advisement--if not leadership--in its development.

Kind regards, --RichardMcCoy (talk) 12:19, 15 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]