.jpg)
TheMichael Faraday Memorial is amonument to theVictorian scientistMichael Faraday. It is located atElephant Square inElephant and Castle,London,England.
Thestainless steel box-shaped structure was designed by modern movement architectRodney Gordon in 1959 and built in 1961, on the centre of what was the northern roundabout of the Elephant and Castle gyratory system. It commemorates Michael Faraday's importance as a scientist and was placed at Elephant and Castle because Faraday's birthplace is nearby inNewington Butts.
The interior of the construction contains aLondon Undergroundelectrical substation for theNorthern line andBakerloo line (somewhat appropriate for a memorial to one of the great pioneers of electricity). Rodney Gordon originally designed the box clad in glass, intending the workings of thetransformer to be seen. The possibility of vandalism prevented this, so the design was changed to a metal casing.
Aspects of Gordon's design which explained the connection to Faraday were left out when it was constructed, so few people realise why it is there. However, there is an inscription in the concrete paving nearby explaining that it is the Faraday Memorial.
In 1996, the monument was given Grade IIlisted building status.
In 1996, the memorial was given a new lighting scheme designed by a local schoolgirl from English Martyrs R.C primary school, the result of a competition held byBlue Peter, the BBC children's programme.
Plans in the early 2000s to redevelop the Elephant and Castle included turning the roundabout into a peninsula and moving the Michael Faraday Memorial 400 metres south-east to theWalworth Road, where it would stand next to theCuming Museum and possibly become part of a proposed science museum. These plans were shelved as the regeneration of Elephant and Castle evolved into a scheme that retained the roundabout, before changing into a scheme that retained the memorial in its current position by "peninsulaising" it, in the process making it easier to access.[1]
In May 2012, the 16-year-old lighting scheme (which had long since stopped working) was replaced with a newdisco theme[2] by Southwark Council, animating every evening after dark.
Electronic musicianAphex Twin satirically claimed in a 2001 interview to have bought the structure and lived inside it.[3][4] The structure briefly appears in the official video for Aphex Twin's "T69 Collapse".[5]
| Physics | |
|---|---|
| Lectures | |
| Related | |
51°29′42″N0°6′2″W / 51.49500°N 0.10056°W /51.49500; -0.10056
