Mercantile Marine War Memorial
Lutyens’s 1928 Merchant Navy and fishing fleets memorial on Tower Hill is a long Doric, tunnel‑like colonnade of arches lined with bronze name panels and a stepped central attic and drum, realised on a revised site after Royal Fine Arts Commission objections, later enlarged below ground by Edward Maufe for Second World War losses.
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Description
This Memorial commemorates men of the Merchant Navy and of the fishing fleets who were lost at sea. Lutyens first designed it to stand on the Thames Embankment, but the siting was criticised by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. Lutyens thought their ‘advice is bosh’ but was obliged to prepare a new design for a new site. It consists of a long arched tunnel structure, with colonnaded openings, faced in bronze panels carrying names. It was inaugurated in 1928. After the Second World War the Memorial was enlarged with a sunken extension by Sir Edward Maufe. (Amery et al, 1981, cat no.300)
Doric temple that could equally as well be at home on the Western Front as in the heart of London. Names of the fallen on bronze panels sized to give the appearance of rusticated walling. Square stepped central attic reminiscent of the original design for the York City Memorial but surmounted by a drum rather than a War Stone. Secret gutter detailing used on shelters in war cemeteries at Assevillers and Feuchy. Cost £20-25,000. Sculptor Sir William Reid Dick. Unveiled on 12 December 1928 by Queen Mary, in the absence of King George V, who was seriously ill. (Skelton, 2008, Appendix 1)
Bibliography
Amery, C., Richardson, M. and Stamp, G., (1981) Lutyens, the Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944): Hayward Gallery London, 18 November 1981 – 31 January 1982. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
Gliddon, G. and Skelton, T.J. (2008) Lutyens and the Great War. London: Frances Lincoln., Bradley S & Pevnser N (1997) LONDON 1: THE CITY. The Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Butler, A., 1950. The architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens: the Lutyens memorial series. Vol III: Town and Public Buildings: Memorials: The Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, Country Life: London and Scribners: New York.
