Three large stone heads can be found looking around corners of a new housing development by Aldwych.

They’re not new though, but thee sculptures by Henry Poole that used to adorn a grand Edwardian office building, and ended their days sitting in a cluster on a rather shabby courtyard in the former office block that’s now residential flats.

Henry Poole RA (1873-1928) was a British architectural sculptor, who while prolific saw most of his work destroyed when older buildings were redeveloped. That makes these three stone heads a rare survivor of his work.

These stone heads survive from a larger collection that were commissioned for the offices of the United Kingdom Provident Institution. The United Kingdom Provident Institution moved out of the site in 1975, and later merged with Friends’ Provident in 1986.

That very grand building was replaced with a huge and very ugly 1970s office block and it seems that three of the stone heads from the decorative sculptures were saved to decorate a roof terrace. And there they stayed unremarked until the site was cleared once more, for housing.

The 1970s concrete plinths that supported the heads were removed as they were very much more suitable for the old courtyard. The developer argued that stone plinths would fit better with the cladding on the building – but later decided to clad the plinths in steel.

The three heads have now been positioned along Milford Lane, one near the junction of the Strand, the second in the entrance to the private courtyard, and the third near the junction of Tweezers Alley.

(text credit)

281 photos taken in November 2020 with a Sony a6000 and processed in Reality Capture.