Rebel Britannia

16th October 1866:

Statues of public figures have been a target for rebels since statues began, and disfiguring or even demolishing them is a fine old British tradition.

Overnight on this date, in Leicester Square, a much-mocked and detested statue of the much-mocked and detested George I on a horse, was given a thorough going-over by a group of jokers, or protesters, or early Situationists, or vandals, or art critics, or whatever. It was reported that they used props taken from the nearby Alhambra theatre to improve the king with a dunce's cap, and a broomstick in place of a lance - while they turned the horse into a cow by whitewashing it and then covering it with spots.

Leicester Square, formerly Leicester Fields, is a small, but world famous, public garden in the West End of London, surrounded by cinemas, theatres and other places of entertainment. It's been many things over the centuries: a mediaeval field, a commons used for grazing stock and drying clothes, a private archery range, a strolling-place for the aristocratic and royal residents of surrounding houses, and by the mid-19th century it was operating as one of the capital's leading complete and utter shitholes, a derelict eyesore full of dead animals and abandoned pots and pans.

The modern Square owes its existence to a Tory MP, Albert Grant, who was one of the biggest crooks ever to sit in the House of Commons - even if judged by the remarkable standards of the 2020s. Perhaps in an attempt to cleanse his reputation, he secretly bought Leicester Square from its various owners and in 1874 he gifted it to the people of London, paying for a full restoration out of his own pocket. (He was kicked out of parliament shortly after, declared bankrupt in 1897, and died near Bognor in 1899).

The statue of George I (1660-1727) was erected in the centre of the Square in 1747. Why it became a target for such widespread ridicule and physical abuse, and over so many years, is not entirely clear; certainly, George I was much hated by his subjects, but by the night of the polka dot attack he'd been dead for way over a century. Maybe something about the piece itself, or its location, simply made it irresistible.

In any case, the king known as "Turnip Head" and his horse ended up in bits. A writer in 1878 reports that "His arms were first cut off; then his legs followed suit, and afterwards his head; when the iconoclasts, who had doomed him to destruction, at last dismounted him," and propped him up against his horse. By 1866, all attempts at restoring George had finally been abandoned, and his remains were sold for scrap, raising £16.

Among the statues currently standing in Leicester Square is one of Charlie Chaplin, another cockney rebel (he lived in the USA for 40 years, but never applied for citizenship there). His status as, at one time, the world's most famous actor, didn't protect him from the anti-socialist purges in post-WW2 America. The FBI was obsessed with him, and several of his films were considered "subversive" and "pro-communist," as was his public opposition to Nazi Germany.

The last film he made in the USA was Limelight (1952). While he was out of the country promoting the new picture, the US government banned him from re-entering the USA and he spent the rest of his life living in Europe. Limelight itself was effectively banned from being shown in the USA until 1972.

British rebels have been attacking monuments since, at least, the first century AD; during the revolt against Roman rule led by Boudica of the Iceni, insurgents decapitated statues of emperors erected by the invaders.

One of the best-known contemporary victims of monumental naughtiness is the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington in Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow. Since at least the early 1980s, it has been a tradition for a traffic cone to be placed on the duke's bonce. So tall is the piece that the city council has to use a cherry-picker to remove the cone - yet each time they do so, another takes its place within days. In 2013, the council claimed that de-coning cost it £10,000 a year, and proposed to discourage the practice by raising the height of the plinth. A massive popular revolt by "coneheids" scuppered that plan, and today the coned statue is a world-famous tourist attraction, featuring on t-shirts and postcards.

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Sources:

The seven noses of Soho by Jamie Manners (O'Mara, 2015)

www.londonremembers.com/memorials/king-george-i-statue-wc2-lost

www.leicestersquare.london/scenes-in-the-square

www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-sep-30-la-et-mn-classic-hollywood-charlie-chaplin20121001-story.html

https://thegardenstrust.blog/2020/01/11/the-statue-the-square-and-the-slippery-baron/:

https://victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/mp-of-the-month-albert-grant-1830-1899-the-financier-who-inspired-trollope/

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp416-440

https://archive.org/details/oldnewlondonnarr03thoruoft

www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2019/10/big-bad-boudica-united-thousands-ancient-britons-against-rome

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/glasgows-duke-wellington-statue-allowed-keep-cone-53146

www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/how-glasgows-wellington-statue-iconic-23637421