Statue of George Orwell

Statue outside Broadcasting House, London

George Orwell

Artist| Martin Jennings
Year| 2017; 8 years ago (2017)
Type| Bronze
Location| London, W1
United Kingdom
Coordinates| 51°31′08″N 0°08′34″W﻿ / ﻿51.5188°N 0.1429°W﻿ / 51.5188; -0.1429

A statue of George Orwell by the British sculptor Martin Jennings was unveiled on 7 November 2017 outside Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC, in London.[1][2]

The wall behind the statue is inscribed with George Orwell's words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", from an unused preface to Animal Farm.[3] The head of BBC history, Robert Seatter, said of Orwell and the statue that "He reputedly based his notorious Room 101 from Nineteen Eighty-Four on a room he had worked in whilst at the BBC, but here he will stand in the fresh air reminding people of the value of journalism in holding authority to account".[1]

## Creation

[edit]

The statue was funded by a trust established by the Labour MP Ben Whitaker, with all funds coming from private donors. Notable donors to the trust included Ian McEwan, Andrew Marr, Ken Follett, Rowan Atkinson, Neil and Glenys Kinnock, Tom Stoppard, David Hare and Michael Frayn. In 2012 the BBC had rejected the offer of the statue, reportedly due to the opposition of the then Director-General, Mark Thompson[4] but the project was revived under the next director-general, Tony Hall. Whitaker died in 2014 and the project was continued by his wife, Janet Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker.[1]

Jennings was chosen as the sculptor because Whitaker admired his sculptures of John Betjeman at St Pancras station and Philip Larkin in Hull. Jennings said that Orwell was "...an ideal subject for a sculptor: loomingly tall, skinny as a rake, forever [with] fag in hand, body leaning in to make a point. He wore the kind of clothes that might have spent their off-duty hours hanging from a nail in the potting shed".[1]

## Reception

[edit]

The architectural critic Gavin Stamp (under the pseudonym "Piloti"), in Private Eye, awarded the statue the "Sir Hugh Casson Award for 2017's ugliest new building" [sic] – "if sculpture is eligible". Orwell "surely deserves better", he wrote. "The great man is depicted holding a fag, dressed in a crumpled suit and standing like a music hall artist about to crack a joke. The plinth is pathetic. ... No hint here of Orwell's ambivalent relationship with the BBC."[5] Jennings pointed out that "smoking was so much a part of [Orwell's] identity that it would have been unthinkable not to represent him with a roll-up between his fingers."[6] Professor Richard Keeble, then Chair of The Orwell Society, responded in Private Eye's letters page that "the plinth on which the statue stands seems to fit in perfectly with the building".[7] On BBC Radio 4's Front Row, the critic Sarah Gaventa also questioned the use of a plinth for this "man of the people". Gaventa was approving of the sculpture itself. "You can see he wants to get into the conversation and give you his very honest and forthright opinions. It's Orwell. Who else could it be? When you look at the canon of Martin Jennings's work… it's about brave people who speak out. I'm sure it will become a much-loved addition to the BBC". On BBC News Jennings explained his decision to elevate the statue: "Of course you make aesthetic decisions as well. He's up against a great big cliff of a stone wall and you need to frame it within that space. It couldn't have been at ground level".

In 2018 the statue won Jennings the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association's Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture.[8] This was the first time the prize had been awarded to the same sculptor for two years in succession, Jennings having won in 2017 with Women of Steel, a sculptural group in Sheffield.[8] Ownership of the statue was transferred to The Orwell Society in 2021.[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Kennedy, Maev (9 August 2016), "Homage to George Orwell: BBC statue wins planning permission", The Guardian, retrieved 19 June 2018
2. ^ "Orwell statue unveiled", About the BBC, 7 November 2017, retrieved 7 November 2017
3. ^ Dowd, Vincent (7 November 2017), Why George Orwell is returning to the BBC, BBC News, retrieved 2 December 2018
4. ^ "New George Orwell Statue to Keep an Eye on BBC 'Ministry of Truth'", Artnet, 9 August 2016, retrieved 7 November 2017
5. ^ Piloti (23 December 2017), "Nooks and Corners", Private Eye, no. 1460, p. 20
6. ^ "Orwell statue unveiled", About the BBC, 7 November 2017, retrieved 9 April 2018
7. ^ Keeble, Richard Lance (12 January 2018), "Orwell and good", Private Eye, no. 1461, p. 23
8. ^ a b "Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture". Marsh Christian Trust. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
9. ^ "Statue". The Orwell Society. Retrieved 28 December 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Statue of George Orwell at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

George Orwell

Bibliography

Novels|

| Fiction|

* Burmese Days (1934)
* A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
* Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
* Coming Up for Air (1939)
* Animal Farm (1945)
* Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

|

Nonfiction|

* Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
* The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
* Homage to Catalonia (1938)

Essays|

| 1930s|

* "A Hanging" (1931)
* "The Spike" (1931)
* "Bookshop Memories" (1936)
* "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
* "Spilling the Spanish Beans" (1937)

|

1940s|

* "Boys' Weeklies" (1940)
* "Inside the Whale" (1940)
* "My Country Right or Left" (1940)
* "The Art of Donald McGill" (1941)
* "England Your England" (1941)
* "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941)
* "Poetry and the Microphone" (1943)
* "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (1944)
* "Good Bad Books" (1945)
* "Notes on Nationalism" (1945)
* "The Sporting Spirit" (1945)
* "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1947)
* "The English People" (1947)
* "Toward European Unity" (1947)
* "Reflections on Gandhi" (1949)

| 1946|

* "Books v. Cigarettes" (1946)
* "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" (1946)
* "Decline of the English Murder" (1946)
* "A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray" (1946)
* "How the Poor Die" (1946)
* "The Moon Under Water" (1946)
* "A Nice Cup of Tea" (1946)
* "Pleasure Spots" (1946)
* "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
* "The Politics of Starvation" (1946)
* "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" (1946)
* "The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
* "Riding Down from Bangor" (1946)
* "Second Thoughts on James Burnham" (1946)
* "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946)
* "Why I Write" (1946)

|

1950s|

* "Such, Such Were the Joys" (1952)

Collections|

* "As I Please" (1943–1947)
* "London Letters" (1941–1946)
* Betrayal of the Left (1941)
* Inside the Whale and Other Essays (1940)
* Critical Essays (1946)

Related|

* Orwellian
* Searchlight Books
* Secker and Warburg
* Victor Gollancz Ltd
* Eileen O'Shaughnessy
* Sonia Orwell
* Orwell's list (1949)
* Eric & Us
* Why Orwell Matters
* Orwell Award
* Orwell Prize
* The Orwell Foundation
* Statue

Portal

* v
* t
* e

Public art and memorials in London

Portrait sculpture

| British/English
royalty|

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* stone
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|

Arts|

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|

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and humanitarians|

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Fictional
characters|

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See also|

* Talking Statues
* Statues in London on Wikimedia Commons

Other monuments and memorials

* 7 July bombings
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| Pre-C20|

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|

Boer Wars|

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* The Cenotaph

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Local|

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* St Michael, Cornhill (parish)
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* Silvertown
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* Wood Green

Corporate|

* Baltic Exchange
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* Dulwich College
* Old
* New
* Great Eastern Railway
* Great Western Railway
* Lincoln's Inn
* London and North Western Railway
* London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
* Pearl Assurance†
* South Suburban Gas Company

Holocaust|

* Victoria Tower Gardens (planned)

* Hyde Park
* Kindertransport
* Stolperstein

Post-WWII|

* Victims of Communism
* Korean War
* Iraq and Afghanistan

Blue plaques|

* Camden
* Kensington and Chelsea
* City of Westminster

Other works

| Sculptures|

* Atalanta
* The Barbican Muse
* Bellerophon Taming Pegasus
* The Bermondsey Lion
* Big 4‡
* Bull
* The Burghers of Calais
* Christ Child
* Cornerstone
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* The Diver
* Dolphin lamp standards
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* Elfin Oak
* Enwrought Light
* Father Time
* Fulcrum
* The Gold Smelters
* Gorilla
* The Hampstead Figure
* Homage to Leonardo
* Icarus
* Labyrinth
* Liberty Clock
* London Noses
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* The Meeting Place
* The Messenger
* Millennium Dial
* Monolith and Shadow
* The Naked Ladies
* The Neighbours
* Nelson's Ship in a Bottle
* Nike
* Paternoster Vents
* Peckham Arch
* Physical Energy
* Platforms Piece
* Pope's Urn
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* The Rush of Green
* St Paul's Cross
* Sculpture in the City‡
* Skylon†
* Slipstream
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* Still Water
* Tortoises with Triangle and Time
* Traffic Light Tree
* Union (Horse with Two Discs)
* The Watchers
* The World Turned Upside Down
* The Young Lovers

Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square‡|

* The End
* Hahn/Cock
* Nelson's Ship in a Bottle
* One & Other

Elisabeth Frink|

* Blind Beggar and his Dog
* Horse and Rider
* Paternoster

Barbara Hepworth|

* Meridian†
* Single Form (Memorial)
* Two Forms (Divided Circle)†
* Winged Figure

Henry Moore|

* The Arch 1979–1980
* Draped Seated Woman 1957–58
* Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65
* Large Standing Figure (Knife Edge)
* Locking Piece
* Three Standing Figures 1947

Eduardo Paolozzi|

* The Artist as Hephaestus†
* Piscator

The Line‡|

* ArcelorMittal Orbit
* Here
* Quantum Cloud
* Liberty Grip
* A Slice of Reality

Fountains|

* Buxton Memorial
* Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain
* Diana Fountain, Bushy Park
* Diana Fountain, Green Park
* Edward VII Jewish Memorial Fountain
* Henry Fawcett Memorial
* Guilford Place
* The Horses of Helios
* Matilda Fountain
* Poets' Fountain†
* Readymoney Drinking Fountain
* Revolving Torsion
* Roehampton
* St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene
* Shaftesbury Memorial ("Eros")
* Lady Henry Somerset Memorial
* Victoria Park

Murals|

* Brixton
* Children at Play
* Cable Street
* Dulwich
* Old Kent Road
* National Covid Memorial Wall
* Poplar Rates Rebellion
* Poured Lines
* Sutton twin towns
* Sutton Heritage Mosaic

Banksy|

* Animal series
* From this moment despair ends and tactics begin
* Girl with Balloon†
* One Nation Under CCTV†
* Pulp Fiction†
* Slave Labour†

Land art|

* Northala Fields

See also|

* Art on the Underground
* Tube map covers
* Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm
* London Mural Preservation Society
* Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

By location

* City of London
* Barking and Dagenham
* Barnet
* Bexley
* Brent
* Bromley
* Camden
* Croydon
* Ealing
* Enfield
* Greenwich
* Hackney
* Hammersmith and Fulham
* Haringey
* Harrow
* Havering
* Hillingdon
* Hounslow
* Islington
* Kensington and Chelsea
* Kingston
* Lambeth
* Lewisham
* Merton
* Newham
* Redbridge
* Richmond
* Southwark
* Sutton
* Tower Hamlets
* Waltham Forest
* Wandsworth

City of Westminster|

* Belgravia1
* Covent Garden2
* Green Park
* Hyde Park
* Kensington1
* Kensington Gardens1
* Knightsbridge1
* Mayfair
* Millbank
* Paddington
* Pimlico
* St James's
* St Marylebone
* Soho
* Strand
* Trafalgar Square
* Victoria
* Victoria Embankment3
* Westminster
* Whitehall

* 1 Partly in Kensington and Chelsea
* 2 Partly in Camden
* 3 Partly in the City of London

Key: † No longer extant, on public display or in London (see List of public art formerly in London) · ‡ Changing displays

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