51°30′23″N0°07′20″W / 51.5064°N 0.1222°W /51.5064; -0.1222
TheSir Joseph Bazalgette Memorial is a memorial to the Victorian engineer SirJoseph Bazalgette, byGeorge Blackall Simonds. It is located on theVictoria Embankment, a few feet up river from theHungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges, opposite the junction withNorthumberland Avenue.
George Blackall Simonds (1843–1929) was a Reading sculptor and director of H & G Simonds Brewery. He exhibited consistently at theRoyal Academy.[1] Simonds studied underJohannes Schilling in Dresden, andLouis Jehotte atThe Academy of Brussels.[2] He created over 200 pieces in many different media.[2]
WhileThe Falconer (1873) is inCentral Park, New York,[3] much of his larger work is to be found in or near Reading. TheMaiwand Lion (1866) in theForbury Gardens is his, thestatue of Queen Victoria at theTown Hall, theStatue of George Palmer (moved from the High Street to a park) and the statue ofH. Blandy, anothermayor of Reading.[4]
Substantial pieces were also commissioned for Indian locations,Allahabad[5] andCalcutta.[6]
In 1922 he designed the war memorial atBradfield, Berkshire,[7] which commemorated the deaths of local men in theFirst World War including his son, a lieutenant with theSouth Wales Borderers.[8]
Bazalgette was a prolific Victorian engineer, responsible forthe Embankment on the north of the Thames, as well as the smallerAlbert Embankment to the south. As chief engineer of London'sMetropolitan Board of Works his major achievement was the creation (in response to theGreat Stink of 1858) of asewer network for central London which was instrumental in relieving the city fromcholera epidemics, while beginning to clean theRiver Thames.[9]Bazalgette's neo-classical mausoleum is in the churchyard of St. Mary's inWimbledon.
Media related toJoseph Bazalgette Memorial at Wikimedia Commons
