The War Memorials of Westminster Walk
The War Memorials of Westminster Walk
Sunday 11 August 2024
Start time/place: 10.30am/Hyde Park Tube Station – outside exit 2 entrance
Finish time/place: 12.30pm/The Cenotaph, Whitehall
A morning walking tour of War Memorials in Westminster from Hyde Park Corner to the Cenotaph led by Jon Wright. To coincide with the recent publication of Gavin Stamp’s posthumous book, Interwar – British Architecture 1919-39, the Society is re-running a tour of July 2014.
Memorials held a lifelong fascination for Gavin, who purposefully and rather singe-handedly at times, made us look at the architectural legacy of memorials in a new light. He curated at the RIBA the first exhibition to look critically at the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) – Silent Cities (1977) and wrote extensively about memorials – often being highly critical of newer monuments that were not as he saw it, good architecture. His appreciation for the work of Lutyens for the CWGC culminated in his masterful and very moving book, Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (2007). Interwar devotes its first chapter to memorials and Gavin has reminded us again how significant they are to our architectural history.
The 2014 tour was a collaboration between Gavin and Jon Wright. a former caseworker at C20. He is author of over 200 memorial list descriptions, and conservation plans for the cemeteries and memorials of the western front, including Tyne Cot and Menin Gate. Jon leads this tour in tribute to Gavin’s work on the subject and who inspired Jon’s interest.
C20 Members: £15 Non-members: £20
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
The Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Image: Beagles postcard of the Royal Artillery Memorial, Hyde Park Corner - Lionel Pearson, Charles Sargeant Jagger (1921).
Image courtesy of the Gavin Stamp Archive.