Cobden relative stands up for statue

Published: 29 April 2010
EXCLUSIVE by PETER GRUNER

THE great-great-granddaughter of Richard Cobden has offered her support for a plan to refurbish the eminent Victorian reformer’s dilapidated statue.

Elizabeth Cobden-Boyd said she thought it was a “great pity” that her ancestor Richard should be “all but forgotten” as his statue, opposite Mornington Crescent Tube station, languishes ignored on a traffic island which was once the gateway to Camden Town.

She spoke out in support of a proposal by award-winning architect Chris Roche to clean up the concrete space, renovate the statue and create a new memorial to Japanese prisoners of war.

Mr Roche’s idea is among the finalists in a competition organised by the London branch of Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA) to improve London’s “forgotten spaces”. He wants to turn the site, encrusted with years of rubbish and dirt, into a new visitor attraction.

The once grand former tollgate, with its weather-beaten statue of Cobden, was erected in 1868. 

Cobden, who was born in 1804 and died in 1865, was a poor farmer who became the father of the free trade movement.

Ms Cobden-Boyd, who lived in Hampstead, said her relative was celebrated more than 200 years ago as the MP responsible for the repeal of the restrictive Corn Laws which kept food prices artificially high to profit rich land-owners but forced the poor to go hungry.

“He was a very philanthropic man and we believe he had great integrity,” said Ms Cobden-Boyd. “He refused a baronetcy and positions in the cabinet. He really only wanted to work for the people. “

She believes that most people have heard of leading Victorians such as Disraeli and Peel, but few know about Cobden.

Cobden’s daughter Ellen later married Walter Sickert, part of the Camden Town Group of artists, whose plaque is also nearby.

Ms Cobden-Boyd said that the Cobden statue has been cleaned and repaired in the past, often as a result complaints by the public, but today looks “seriously dilapidated”.

“I wrote recently about the state of the statue but all they did, as far as I understand, was hose it down with water to get rid of the bird mess,” she said.

Under Mr Roche’s scheme the site would become a place to meet, with trees and outlets for refreshments and a performance plinth for buskers, musicians and artists.

Mr Roche also suggests that a disused underground lavatory on the island could provide storage space for possibly a florist stall.

He came up with the idea for refurbishing the island while working on a project to create a war memorial on the site to those who died building railways for the Japanese during the Second World War. Money has been donated for the memorial following an appeal in the New Journal.

Camden Town attracts 100,000 visitors each weekend, and is the fourth most popular visitor destination in London. Currently the majority of visitors arrive by Tube at Camden Town, leading to critical station and pavement congestion for visitors and residents alike.

Mr Roche, founder of Shoreditch-based 11.04 Architects, is a former chairman of the Camden branch of the RIBA.

Ms Cobden-Boyd added: “I really welcome Mr Roche’s scheme. It will be a huge uplift for Camden. And obviously I’m pleased at anything that will improve the condition of my ancestor’s statue.”