Statue Of The Duke Of Kent
It is made from bronze and is stands on a granite pedestal. It has been Grade II listed since 1970. Gahagan was from a notable family of sculptors and was the son of Lawrence Gahagan. He also served an apprenticeship with Joseph Nollekens. Kent had died in January 1820, eight months after his wife Victoria of Saxe-Coburg had given birth to their only child Princess Victoria. Funds were raised for the memorial statue by various charities with which Kent had been involved, with many of his fellow Freemasons giving money. It was cast by the engineer John Braithwaite.
The statue complemented the grand rebuilding of parts of the West End, particularly the development of Regent Street and Regent's Park (both named after Kent's elder brother, Prince Regent since 1811) and Portland Place by the architects John Nash and Decimus Burton in the fashionable late Georgian style.
Today it is located close to Regent's Park tube station on the London Underground. A much later memorial to the Victorian surgeon Lord Lister was unveiled in 1924 a little way to the south on Portland Place.
See also
- Duke of York Column, a memorial to Kent's brother the Duke of York
- King's Cross, a destroyed memorial to Kent's brother George IV