The figure of the saint over the door was carved by Harry Hems (1842-1916), an eccentric and excitable sculptor who had made his home in Exeter after winning a commission to work on the Royal Albert Memorial Museum there. He was known for refusing to pay what he described as the iniquitous demands of the Inland Revenue, and preparing the catalogues of the resulting forced sales of his works himself. The lots he selected included the crowbar used by the bailiffs, and three "second-hand tombstones (slightly damaged) ... suitable for the graves of Income Tax Commissioners or other Revenue Officials". The publicity did him no harm at all.
His statue of St Pancras shows the 14 year old boy in a toga and carrying a bible and a martyr's palm - he was beheaded for defying the Emperor Diocletian. St Pancras is the patron saint of children and his aid is invoked in cases of cramps, headaches, false witness and perjury.
4 comments:
St Pancras looks bloody miserable to me!
A typical sulky teenager in fact. 'So cut off my head then...nobody understands me...(etc etc ad naus)"
If you go to the streetview of the Google map for no. 26 (pan left up Crowndale Road), you will find they have blurred out St Pancras's face! Taking no chances! https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=26+Crowndale+Road+NW1&hl=en&sll=51.535540,-0.134183&gl=uk&hnear=26+Crowndale+Rd,+London+NW1+1TT,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=17
What a hoot...proof again that even the smartest software can be a bit dim sometimes.
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