Capital women... the figures it's OK to idolise!

Having once been less well represented in public spaces than animals, a monumental shift in statuary means famous females are finally being put on plenty of pedestals

- By Juliet Rix

DO you ever stop to really look at a statue? Most of us don't, and we are missing so much - especially with statues of women, a far more varied crew than the bronze army of male soldiers and statesmen that have so long dominated our streets.

From 13th-century Eleanor of Castile — married aged 12 to the 15-year-old soon-to-be Edward I - to Queen Victoria (by far the most memorialised person in Britain), queens dominated the scene for centuries. They aren’t here on personal merit, of course, but among them are extraordinary women thrust to the fore in a man’s world.

The first standalone statue of a named non-royal woman in London didn’t appear until the very end of the 19th century. She wasn’t a selfless nurse or social activist but an A-list celebrity actress, Sarah Siddons, who had audiences fainting from “Siddons fever”. She was followed by a sprinkling of other women's statues, but representation only really picked up in the 21st century.

Being late to the party — and less conventionally powerful — has had one advantage. Statues of women are far less likely to be the target of protest than those of men — although Queen Eleanor’s original London monument was deliberately destroyed in the English Civil War. Objecting to effigies isn’t new.

A survey in 2021 found that our capital had “more statues of animals than of named women”. London has a better percentage than any other major UK city, but even here the researchers found fewer than one in six statues commemorating an individual were for women. The three years since then, however, have seen a statue boom and in 2022-3, more female figures were unveiled than men.

There may be a way to go to equality, but women are chipping away at disparities with each passing decade...

QUEEN CHARLOTTE Queen Square, Bloomsbury, 1775, unknown sculptor