We’re going slightly off grid here to take you up to the Kennington suburb of Waterloo. If you’ve ever had the misfortunate of being trapped in a srcum of people trying to make their way into ‘Shrek’s Adventure London’ you might have noticed a remarkably pristine and proud lion on the southern end of Westminster Bridge, guarding the entrance in Lambeth. The lion was created by William Woodington but was cast in a remarkable stone invented by local resident and female pioneer Eleanor Coade and is called ‘The Coadestone Lion’.
Our feline friend was created in 1837 to dangle at the pinnacle of the Lion Brewery. The building was pulled down in 1949 to make way for the Royal Festival Hall and the poor beast then suffered a number of indignities including having a time capsule stuck up his bum, being painted red, and then getting dropped. After a brief stint outside Waterloo station his destiny was preserved at the bridge in 1966 and afterwards he achieved a Grade II listing (talk about hard work). His noble and pristine appearance has endured due to Eleanor’s invention of a highly durable, frost and freeze proof artificial stone, which is actually a kind of ceramic. The formula was created in our backyard by Eleanor at the cusp of the 18thand 19thcentury. Eleanor is said to have taken the formula to her grave when she died in 1821, and it has since been lost.
There were a number of potteries and ceramics factories experimenting with artificial stone in Vauxhall at the time and perhaps Eleanor chose to ply her trade in our area in order to capitalise on the industry. In spite of stiff competition, Coade’s stone proved very popular and was commissioned for use in Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, and the Royal Opera House. If you would like to see specimens of her craft but are afraid you might turn to stone yourself if you leave greater Kennington, check out Captain Bligh’s tomb at the Gardening Museum, the porch at the main entrance of Brunswick House, or the lovely gargoyles above the windows at 57 South Lambeth Road next to the ‘opposite of lovely’ Travis Perkins. After 1840 her formula was lost and has never been recreated.
Have a nice weekend and enjoy exploring….
Thanks for another interesting post. We’ve often wondered about that lion…we think it has something of a Disney character to it!
Some nice Coadestone keystones over the windows of the lovely Georgian Houses facing Kennington Green (though their loveliness is currently somewhat compromised by the construction work associated with the Northern Line extension).