Why Is The Statue In Cavendish Square Missing?

Turn North off Oxford Street when you reach the John Lewis and you will find Cavendish Square. Go inside and you will notice something a bit odd.

In the centre is this plinth. There was once a statue here but who was it of and where did it go?

Cavendish Square

First, let’s cover the origins of Cavendish Square itself.

Cavendish Square was laid out from 1717 by the architect John Prince for Edward Harley, the 2nd Earl of Oxford.

In 1713 the Earl of Oxford married Lady Henrietta Cavendish-Holles, the daughter of the 1st Duke of Newcastle (1662-1711) and heiress to his huge fortune. Part of her inheritance was a great tranche of land around Marylebone, then just a small village.

The Earl of Oxford and his wife quickly started lay out new streets and squares, including Harley Street, named after the Earl, Wimpole Street named after Wimpole Hall, their house in Cambridgeshire, and Cavendish Square as the centrepiece, named after Lady Henrietta.

Oxford Street also, from the 1720s, took its name from the Earl, previously having been known generally as Tyburn Road.

Home To A Princess

Cavendish Square took nearly 50 years to complete due to wars and economic recessions, but then became a popular residence of the upper classes. Princess Amelia, daughter of King George III, for example, lived at what is now number 16 from 1761-1780.

The Duke of Chandos originally wanted to build ‘the greatest town house in Europe’ on the Northern side. However, the South Sea Bubble disaster in 1720 left those plans in tatters. He did though end up building the two Palladian houses we see there today instead.

The unusual sculpture in the centre by the way is called Madonna and Child by Jacob Epstein, dating from 1953. It was commissioned by the nuns of the convent that had occupied part of this building from the late 19th century.

The ‘Butcher’ Of Culloden

Now onto the missing statue.

In 1770 a statue was erected in the centre of the square depicting the Duke of Cumberland riding a horse.

The Duke of Cumberland, or Prince William Augustus, was the third son of King George II and Queen Caroline.

He was a major-general during the Austrian War of Succession in the 1740s and in 1745 was made Commander-in-Chief of the allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch forces.

In 1745 he was chosen to lead the British force against the Jacobite uprising in Scotland led by Prince Charles Edward, the exiled Catholic son of King James II. A claimant to the throne, he was known as the ‘Young Pretender’.

The uprising culminated in the Battle of Culloden on the 16th April 1746, where the Duke of Cumberland won a bloody and decisive victory over the Scots.

His approach was brutal, ordering no quarter be given. His troops therefore went around the battlefield stabbing to death any remaining wounded rebel troops.

The highlanders way of life was also heavily suppressed in the years following the battle. The Duke of Cumberland therefore gained the epithet the ‘Butcher of Culloden’.

The Duke was at first considered a heroic figure but as details emerged and attitudes towards the Scottish changed in England in subsequent decades, his popularity took a downturn.

The Empty Plinth

The Duke of Cumberland died in 1765 and in 1770 Lieutenant General William Strode, his former friend and colleague, commissioned a statue of the Duke for Cavendish Square. The Duke’s sister Princess Amelia was of course living here at the time.

The gilt lead statue, by John Cheere, was placed facing towards Scotland. It was never particularly liked by Londoners aesthetically, the Duke looking, possibly too accurately, rather corpulent.

By 1868 the statue was falling into disrepair and was removed to be restored. Due to both the statue and the Duke’s unpopularity, it was however never replaced. What happened to the original statue is not known, but it was probably melted down.

The Slippery Duke: A Soap Statue

In 2012 the statue had a revival of sorts.

A Korean artist called Meekyoung Shin erected a replica of the Duke’s statue, except this one was made of entirely of soap set around a steel frame.

The idea was that as it “weathers through the four seasons, [the work] is a testament to the continuously mutable meanings we attach to not only monuments but to one’s history.”

The installation was called Written in Soap: A Plinth Project. It was then left to disintegrate over time, with the remnants finally removed in 2016.

You can find out more about it here.

Thank you for reading! More quirky London spots below…