Old Admiralty (Ripley) Building, Whitehall SW1

The 1723 Admiralty building, now the oldest surviving government offices, was originally built as apartments for the members of the Board of Admiralty, both naval officers and politicians.
In 1760 Robert Adam was employed to design a screen consisting of columns in front of a wall, with pavilions at the ends and a gate in the middle.
The gate has a pair of winged hippocampi or seahorses, very appropriate for a navy that was propelled round the world by the wind. The pavilion pediments are carved with ship's prows - on the right a Roman galley with another hippocampus, a ram in the shape of three of the short stabbing swords used by Roman soldiers, and a brazen eagle's head.
On the left is a British warship with a lion figurehead. The message is clear - the Navy is the power of the new Imperium.
The sculptor was Michael Henry Spang, a Dane who had found fame with a flayed figure in bronze that he made for the noted surgeon William Hunter, under whom he had studied anatomy.
Spang was one of Adams' favourite sculptors but unfortunately died shortly after the Admiralty screen was completed.

Apollo Victoria, Wilton Road SW1

The Apollo Victoria theatre was originally built in 1928 by E. Walmsley Lewis as a monster cinema for Gaumont, whose executive architect was William E. Trent. As a result, the name Trent crops up a lot in the design credits for Gaumonts of the period, including W. Sydney Trent and Newbury A. Trent, an admirable example of keeping it in the family.
Newbury Trent did these frothy little bas reliefs for the main entrance. They show an audience watching a romance (on the left) and a drama (on the right).
They watch the romance impassively but the scene of a lady being knifed in the back elicits violent reactions - women faint, shriek or hide their eyes in their hands. One man even rises to his feet and puts up his fists, threatening to fight the assailant.
But the couple to the left of centre are oblivious to the screen, locked in their embrace in both pictures.
Incidentally, the knifing is very reminiscent of Hitchcock's Psycho. I bet Hitch knew the Apollo in its cinematic heyday.
An interesting detail is the figure of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp on the responds of the entrance, presumably also designed by Trent (left). The comical feet-out, hands-out posture is captured perfectly.
The figure is repeated on the Vauxhall Bridge Road entrance, but strangely different (right). It is shorter, squatter and the bowler hat is at a slightly more rakish angle. It has a more feminine air - as if Trent had put Vesta Tilley doing Charlie Chaplin on that side. Odd.

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Gower Street WC1

RADA was built in 1927 by Geoffrey Norman, with these actors holding masks of Tragedy and Comedy sculpted by Alan Durst over the main entrance. Durst was a career soldier who left the army for art and enrolled at the Central School of Art and Design in 1913, with tragically bad timing. The very next year he was, of course, back in the Marines for the duration.
Durst makes a simple and effective point about acting by giving the Mask of Comedy to the grumpy old bloke on the right, and the Mask of Tragedy to the sunny, smiling beauty on the left.

4 Millbank SW1

No 4 Millbank was built in 1912 by Simpson & Ayrton for the Crown Agents. The allegorical figures over the entrance are by Albert Hodge. London possesses few of Hodge's works - born in Islay, he began his career in Glasgow and died in 1918 at the early age of 43.
The female on the left sitting on top of an Ionic column is not as generously endowed as most Edwardian lovelies, which is typical of Hodge. Both figures have muscles like penny rolls, as Robert Louis Stevenson said, which is another characteristic of Hodge's work.
The male figure carries a bundle of fasces, so he must be associated with justice. Note the tiny winged figurehead under his left hand, implying that he is sitting on a ship. You can just see a mooring ring behind him to his right.

Thames House, Millbank SW1

When the Security Service (better known as MI5 despite being renamed as far back as 1931) moved into the former ICI building just down the road from the Houses of Parliament they were lucky enough to inherit a couple of sculptures that are not only of the highest quality but also rather appropriate. Dating from 1928, they depict St George (left) and Britannia (right) and are by Charles Sargeant Jagger MC.
St George is difficult to interpret. His sword stands point-down in front of him, surrounded by supplicating figures. He holds an amorphous object - the dragon's head?
Britannia also has a sword and supplicating figures, and seems to be holding chests of some sort. The profits of sea-borne trade?
The keystone of the arch above (which used to span Paige Street until the building was converted for the spooks) is equally mysterious. The bearded figure looks like Old Father Thames but is blindfold and holds the sword and scales of Justice.
Most oddly, the balance has the Monarch's crown on one side and a working man's flat cap on the other.
Frankly, the symbolism eludes me.






It doesn't seem to be known who did the other sculptures on Thames House, but they are not nearly craggy enough for Jagger.
The keystone over the visitors' entrance is indisputably Old Father Thames (again), wearing a shell with dolphins on his head. On either side spreads boating paraphenalia including sails, oars, boathooks, lifebelts and mooring chains. The swags of flowers presumably symbolise the prosperity the river brought to London.
The final keystone is a rather lovely girl with her long tresses knotted under her chin and wearing a scallop shell coronet. Bet she has a fishtail where her legs ought to be.

Methodist Missionary Society, Marylebone Road NW1

The trees along Marylebone Road are very nice and all that but they make photographing the sculpture jolly difficult. I think I will have to come back in the winter to retake these excellent works by David Evans on the Methodist Missionary Society building of 1939, designed by Paul Manger, A.J. May and L. Sylvester Sullivan.
The low relief over the front door shows Christ signing up the fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John as disciples, telling them he will make them 'fishers of men'. Mind you, they seem to have had a very successful time as fishers of fish, judging by the number of heads peeking out from the stern of the boat. Perhaps it is a hint at the miraculous draft of fishes, Christ's first miracle after the resurrection.
High up on the side of the building are three fine portraits, one of a nurse cradling a baby, the others of African and Indian converts.

Ferguson House, 15 Marylebone Road NW1

This self-effacing 1957 office block stands on the site of one of Charles Dickens's favourite houses which he occupied from 1839 to 1851.
A huge panel sculpted by Estcourt J Clack (known as Jim) commemorates some of the characters the great man created there.
Top left is Jacob Marley appearing unto Scrooge in the form of a door knocker in A Christmas Carol.
Next is Barnaby Rudge and his raven Grip. Dickens actually had a pet raven called Grip at the house - when it died he had him stuffed and mounted.
Top right are Little Nell and her pathetic grandfather from The Old Curiosity Shop, above Paul Dombey (another inadequate parent) and his daughter Florence from Dombey and Son.
One of my favourite characters, midwife and 'layer-out' Sairey Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit is to the middle right and Mr Micawber with David Copperfield is at the bottom.