WHO CUT DOWN KING CHARLES AND JERMYN? - 10 years on, conservationists demand answers about historic artwork stripped from SW1 street

Published: 24 September 2010
by JOSH LOEB

CONSERVATIONISTS have appealed for information about the fate of long-lost artwork removed by builders a decade ago. 

The Jermyn Street bas-relief, a giant piece of public art commemorating the history of the area, was lost during building work despite protests from neighbours.

Now St James’s Conservation Trust has launched a campaign to find out the history of the relief and what became of it and trust administrator Brian Woodham has called on the council to help replace it.

He said he believed it was dumped in a skip by workmen ­carrying out alterations to windows of a building on the corner of Bury Street. He said: “The real scandal is that Westminster City Council cannot say what application it was that led to this work being carried out and whether there was any reason for this rather beautiful work to have been removed.”

The building that the relief adorned, which houses upmarket clothing shop Hilditch & Key, is owned by the Crown Estate but Mr Woodham said neither the Crown Estate nor City Hall have been able to shed light on what work builders were carrying out.

He said: “The Crown Estate should have known about it, being the owners of the building. I’ve been going on about this for years and things have come to a complete standstill.”

Little is known about the relief itself, which depicted Charles II handing the deeds of the area to Henry Jermyn, who was the 1st Earl of St Albans and was granted  Soho Fields in the 1660s. 

Mr Woodham is keen to find out who the artist was and when the work was made. The only known images of it are in City Hall’s archive in St Ann’s Street and a book of Westminster photographs. 

Mr Woodham said: “It was quite obviously an expensive piece of art. The importance of it was such that Westminster Archive considered it important enough to have it in a library of photographs. While it was being removed the manager of Hilditch & Key remonstrated with the builders, but in vain. Someone knows who’s responsible, I’ve just got that feeling. 

“It’s a bit of the heritage of Jermyn Street and it would be wonderful if we could find out the name of the builders that carried out this vandalism and get them to pay to have it redone.”

The city council was unavailable for comment.

Anyone with information is invited to contact Mr Woodham on brianwoodham@tiscali.co.uk­