However, the artwork of sculptor Gilbert Bayes can be found in each of these locations.
Born April 4, 1872, at 6 Oval Road, Camden Town, Gilbert Bayes was a prolific artist.
‘Drama Through the Ages’ on the Odeon Covent Garden cinema, Shaftesbury Avenue (Image: Louise Choo) Bayes produced designs for Royal Doulton and architectural embellishments such as the Queen of Time figure that presides over the Selfridges Oxford Street, a series of sporting figures outside Lord’s cricket ground and a frieze called Drama Through the Ages for the Saville Theatre, more recently known as the Odeon Covent Garden cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue.
Bayes was president of the Royal Society of Sculptors from 1939 to 1944, and a charitable trust supports today’s emerging sculptors in the form of the Gilbert Bayes Award.
In Somers Town, Bayes was commissioned to showcase ‘art in everyday life’.
Inspired by fairy tales and the saints that estates took their names from, Bayes added fun elements.
He created 200 finials, ceramic sculptures to decorate the top end of washing-line posts in housing estate courtyards.
Believing that art should be available to all, he produced semi-circular lunettes featuring fairy tale characters, adding other quirky decorative details.
In one courtyard using a circular washing post set-up, Gilbert Bayes positioned four and twenty blackbird finials surrounding a central pie.
In another courtyard with a simple row of washing posts, inspired by a tale of St Anthony’s sermons being so inspiring that even fish from the sea turned up to listen, various fish featured as finials and other estate decorations.
While these 1930s Gilbert Bayes artworks survived the Second World War and were noted in 1980 as being almost all intact and in good repair, they did not survive mass theft or careless destruction, so very few originals remain in the area today.
Replica finials of Gilbert Baye’s ships on Aldenham Street (Image: Louise Choo) Replica finials of Gilbert Bayes’ ships surrounding a central Christmas tree can be found on Aldenham Street near the plaque of Father Basil Jellicoe, who founded, publicised and documented the St Pancras House Improvement Society’s landmark ‘Housing is not Enough’ campaign for not only high-quality housing, but art, culture and education for the community.
A few originals are on display in the basement of the British Library, and occasionally these lost finials appear at auctions.
The ongoing saga of the fate of Gilbert Bayes’ finials is just one of the fascinating stories that you’ll find amid old photo albums and films at a local museum in Phoenix Road, part of the Grade II-listed Ossulston Estate.
Tailors adorn the People’s Museum, Phoenix Road, Somers Town (Image: Louise Choo)
The community-led People’s Museum was successful in buying two of Gilbert Bayes’ finials at auction. Still, it remains an ongoing battle to recover all the artworks originally created for these ‘fairy tale estates’.
Set up by passionate residents, the People’s Museum offers a sense of place and aims to preserve the heritage and memories of the local working class and social housing environment.
The museum celebrates Somers Town’s community spirit and contains a treasure trove of community-curated objects of the area’s past, with artefacts ranging from supersize fleas to Pearly Queen regalia and a Frankenstein model.
Possibly the oddest tale represented by Gilbert Bayes comes from a Scottish poem about 24 tailors chasing a snail.
Original Gilbert Bayes’ finials at the People’s Museum (Image: Louise Choo)
For this story, Bayes designed two tailors, one young and one old, and these tailors in street art form feature on the People’s Museum shutters, making a statement even when closed.
Enjoyed this taster of my Somers Town: Tracks & Treasures tour? then join me for the rest of the walk!
Over the coming months, I will be fundraising for Coram via a series of guided walks on different themes and areas.
Join me to explore this often-forgotten area steeped in characters and curiosities.
Contact Louise Choo from Camden Guides (walk.deliberately@gmail.com) for booking details of her Somers Town: Tracks & Treasures walking tour or to ask about her other guided walks.