Arch of Remembrance

The Arch of Remembrance
United Kingdom
For servicemen from Leicester killed in the First World War
Unveiled 1925
Location 52°37′23″N 1°07′19″W / 52.6230779°N 1.1219057°W / 52.6230779; -1.1219057Coordinates: 52°37′23″N 1°07′19″W / 52.6230779°N 1.1219057°W / 52.6230779; -1.1219057
Victoria Park, Leicester, England
Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name The Arch of Remembrance
Designated 23 February 1955
Reference no. 1074786

The Arch of Remembrance is a war memorial in Victoria Park, Leicester, designed by Edwin Lutyens, comprising a monumental tetrapylon quadrifrons triumphal arch in a railed enclosure. It is one of 58 war memorials designed by Lutyens in the UK and elsewhere; the 44 in England are all listed buildings. The Arch of Remembrance became a listed building in 1955, and was upgraded to Grade I in 1996. It has been described as "the most imposing of Lutyens's English war memorials".

Background

In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation".[1] Lutyens established his reputation designing country houses for wealthy clients, but the war had a profound effect on him; following it, he devoted much of his time to memorialising its casualties. He became renowned for his commemorative works through his design for the Cenotaph on Whitehall, which became Britain's national war memorial. This, along with his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission, led to commissions for war memorials across Britain and the empire.[1]

Victoria Park is a 35-hectare (86-acre) area of open land to the south-east of Leicester city centre. Formerly a racetrack, it was laid out as a public park in the late 19th century.[2] At the beginning of the First World War, five part-time Territorial Force units were based in Leicester, along with elements of the regular Leicestershire Regiment. The special reserve battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment was sent to man coastal defences near Hull, while all five territorial units were sent to the front. Among them was the city's former Member of Parliament (MP), Eliot Crawshay-Williams, who served in the Middle East with the 1st Leicestershire Royal Horse Artillery.[3] Recruitment to the army was lower in Leicester than in other English industrial towns, partly because of low unemployment in the area—the town's major industries were textile and footwear manufacturing, both of which were necessary for the war effort.[4] Later in the war, many of the town's factories were given over to munitions production; Leicester produced the first batch of Howitzer shells by a British company which was not making ammunition before the war.[5] The local authorities held recruiting rallies as the war progressed, aided by William Buckingham, a local soldier who won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915.[6] Leicester was granted city status by King George V in 1919, in recognition of its industries' contribution to the British war effort.[7]

Commissioning

A public meeting was held in Leicester on 14 May 1919, leading to the creation of a War Memorial Committee of 23 members to propose a suitable memorial. The committee was chaired by Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland with Sir Jonathan North (the lord mayor of Leicester) as vice-chair. Two sub-committees were established, one to look after finance and the other to supervise the design. The Duke of Rutland suggested siting the memorial outside Leicester Town Hall but this was rejected unanimously by the city council and the committee examined potential sites at Leicester Castle and Victoria Park. A design submitted by a member of the public was examined by the sub-committee, but in October 1919 the committee resolved to appoint Lutyens as architect and to build the memorial in Victoria Park, which had been in the ownership of the city council since the 1860s and was laid out as a public park in 1883. Lutyens visited on 20 October 1919 and was accompanied by the duke and other committee members on an inspection of the chosen site. The original plan involved crossing avenues of lime trees to create a tree cathedral, with a cenotaph (identical to the one in London) at the western end, and a Stone of Remembrance at the crossing, within a circular walled enclosure, which would be inscribed with the names of the dead. The paths along the plan of the cathedral would be paved to accentuate the purpose of the structure. This proposal was accepted, and a model was made and displayed in the city museum. By March 1922, the project had been scaled back due to a shortage of funds and lack of public enthusiasm for the project—the costs were estimated at £23,000, of which only around £4,300 had been raised. At a public meeting on 29 March, the committee agreed to abandon the scheme and that "a memorial worthy of the city be erected on the ground near the main entrance gates".[8]

Two days later, the committee asked Lutyens to design a memorial arch. Lutyens advised that such an arch would cost in the region of £25,000; he suggested they consider alternatives, such as an obelisk (which he estimated would be around half the cost) but the committee decided to proceed with an arch. They presented the new design to another public meeting in May 1923. Lutyens told the meeting that the arch represented the city's triumphal spirit, and he announced the name "Arch of Remembrance".[1][9][10][11][12] The name was chosen to avoid the impression that the memorial would be a triumphal arch, something it was felt was incompatible with commemoration of casualties.[13]

The new proposal was approved by the meeting and construction started on the revised memorial in 1923 and work was completed by 1925. The structure was begun by Nine Elms Stone and Masonry Works, and completed by Holloway Brothers (who built several other memorials for Lutyens, including Southampton Cenotaph). Due to a continuing shortfall of funding, the War Memorial Committee took out a bank loan to pay for the works to be completed. Five committee members served as guarantors.[1][13]

Design

Detail of vaults
Detail of railing pier

The memorial, in Portland stone, is a square-plan arch with four legs (piers; a tetrapylon or qadrifrons) which dominates the surrounding level ground. It is 69 feet, 4¼ inches (approximately 21m) tall, with large arched openings on the main axis (north-west to south-east), with smaller, lower arches on the north-east and south-west sides. The main axis is aligned with the sunrise on 11 November. The width, heights and depths of the arches are in simple 2:4:1 proportions: the larger arches are 18 feet (5.5 m) wide, 36 feet (11 m) tall and 9 feet (2.7 m) deep; and the smaller arches are 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, 24 feet (7.3 m) tall and 6 feet (1.8 m) deep. Stone wreaths are carved in relief on the legs at the front (north-west side, facing University Road) and rear of the largest arch; inside these are carved the dates of the First World War: MCM XIV (1914) on the left side, and MCM XIX (1919) on the right. Above the arch is a heavy attic, stepped back and concave at the front and rear. The city's coat of arms is carved in relief on the rear, surrounded by large swags. The whole structure is topped by a low dome.[1][9]

The larger arches on the main axis form a coffered, barrel vault ceiling, crossed by the lower arches to either side. The main axis is aligned so that the sun is at its centre at sunrise on 11 November. Four painted stone flags are set inside the archway, raised on corbels on the inside of the legs: the Union Flag (representing the British Army) and the flag of the Royal Navy (the White Ensign) at the front, and the flags of the Merchant Navy (the Red Ensign), and Royal Air Force (the Royal Air Force Ensign) at the rear.[1][14] Painted stone flags are a recurring feature in Lutyens' war memorial designs; he first proposed them for the Cenotaph, where they were rejected in favour of fabric, though they feature on several of his other designs besides Leicester (other examples include Northampton war memorial and Rochdale Cenotaph).[15][16]

Above the front arch (facing University Road) is the inscription GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE and on the opposite side (facing the park), ALL THEY HOPED FOR, ALL THEY HAD, THEY GAVE TO SAVE MANKIND – THEMSELVES THEY SCORNED TO SAVE from the hymn "O Valiant Hearts". Inscriptions lower down, facing into the park, were added later to display the dates of the Second World War: MCM XXXIX (1939) and MCM XLV (1945). The side arches also have inscriptions. The north-east arch (left, when viewed from the direction of University Road) reads REMEMBER IN GRATITUDE TWELVE THOUSAND MEN OF THIS CITY AND COUNTY WHO FOUGHT AND DIED FOR FREEDOM. REMEMBER ALL WHO SERVED AND STROVE AND THOSE WHO PATIENTLY ENDURED; the right (south-west) arch contains an excerpt from Blake's poem "And did those feet in ancient time": I WILL NOT CEASE FROM MENTAL FIGHT NOR SHALL MY SWORD SLEEP IN MY HAND TILL WE HAVE BUILT JERUSALEM IN ENGLAND'S GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND.[1][17]

The arch is encircled by iron railings, which are interrupted by four pairs of stone piers which support gates, allowing access opposite each arch. The piers are decorated with meanders (Greek key patterns) and swags and topped by stone urns, similar to the one on Lutyens' Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial in Reading.[1][18]

Arches are a relatively uncommon form of memorial, particularly for the First World War. Leicester's is one of three by Lutyens and the only one in Britain, the other two being the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme in France (unveiled in 1932) and the India Gate (originally named the All India War Memorial, unveiled in 1931) in New Delhi. The India Gate in particular bears a close resemblance to the Arch of Remembrance, though it is nearly twice its height; Thiepval is a much more complex structure, using multiple interlocking arches to form one, much larger, arch.[19][20][21][22]

Lodges and gates

Following the death of his wife in the 1930s, North commissioned Lutyens to design two processional entrances to Victoria Park, leading to the war memorial, as a gift to the city. Lutyens produced a pair of lodges and gates at the Granville Road entrance to Victoria Park, to the north-east of the memorial, and a set of gates and gate piers to the north-west, leading out onto University Road. The lodges are single-storey rectangular buildings which flank the gates. The external walls are stuccoed, giving the effect of ashlar, with quoins at the angles and large sash windows. Both have architraves above the doorways and a pulvinated frieze below the slate roofs and large chimney stacks. The four gate piers are made of ashlar, matching the lodges. They support ornate iron gates which feature an overthrow which incorporates Leicester's coat of arms. The gate piers at the University Road entrance are in Portland stone, matching the memorial, decorated with Tuscan pilasters and topped with an entablature and tall urns. They support two a smaller pedestrian gates, one each side of a central pair. Above the central gates is an overthrow, again featuring the city's coat of arms. A processional way leads from both entrances to the war memorial, where the two paths meet. The 150-metre (490-foot) long path from the memorial to the University Road gates is known as the Peace Walk (formerly War Memorial Approach) and is lined by shrub borders and formal flower beds.[2][9][23][24]

History

Gates to University Road

The arch was unveiled on 4 July 1925 by two local widows, Mrs Elizabeth Butler and Mrs Annie Glover, in front of 30,000 people, including Lutyens and local dignitaries. Eight of Butler's sons served in the army during the war, of whom four were killed in action; Glover lost three sons, along with two nephews and two brothers-in-law. The memorial was dedicated by Cyril Bardsley, Bishop of Peterborough, to the 12,000 men from Leicester and Leicestershire killed during the First World War. The total cost of the memorial was £27,000, of which £1,635 was Lutyens' fee and expenses. At the time of the unveiling, only £16,000 had been raised and by the end of 1925, the committee still had a shortfall of £5,500, which the five guarantors repaid to the bank out of their own pockets.[1][17][25][26][27] The sum spent was similar to that raised for Rochdale Cenotaph, but the committee in Leicester decided to spend the entire sum on a monument (rather than a fund for wounded servicemen or war widows as in Rochdale), with the result that Leicester's is the largest and most imposing of Lutyens' war memorials in Britain.[1][28]

Reporting on the unveiling, the local newspaper, the Leicester Advertiser praised the design but stridently criticised the war memorial committee, describing it as a "disgrace that, nearly seven years after the cessation of hostilities we should be touting around to get money to pay for what should have been bought and paid for at least five years ago. It could have been obtained then quite easily, but dilatoriness on the part of those who had control and a lack of tact in dealing with the public caused the whole thing to fall flat". The paper went on to compare the scheme with the carillon erected as a war memorial in the nearby town of Loughborough, noting that "Leicester, though some eight times as big as Loughborough, has had a struggle to raise as much money as Loughborough has already spent".[13][25]

The arch was designated a grade II* listed building in 1955 and upgraded to grade I in 1996. The gates and gate piers leading to University Road are separately listed at grade II*. Victoria Park itself is listed at grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Listed status provides legal protection from demolition or modification; grade II is applied to about 92% of listed buildings of "special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them"; grade II* is reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" and applies to about 5.5% of listed buildings. The Arch of Remembrance was one of 44 works included in a national collection of Lutyens' war memorials, designated by Historic England in November 2015 as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War.[1][2][29][30]

See also

References

Bibliography

  • Boorman, Derek (1988). At the Going Down of the Sun: British First World War Memorials. York: Sessions of York. ISBN 9781850720416.
  • Boorman, Derek (2005). A Century of Remembrance: One Hundred Outstanding British War Memorials. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 9781844153169.
  • Borg, Alan (1991). War Memorials: From Antiquity to the Present. London: Leo Cooper. ISBN 9780850523638.
  • Cavanagh, Terry; Yarrington, Alison (2000). Public Sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland. Public Sculpture of Britain. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780853236559.
  • Corke, Jim (2005). War Memorials in Britain. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN 9780747806264.
  • King, Alex (1998). Memorials of the Great War In Britain: The Symbolism and Politics of Remembrance. Oxford: Berg Publishers. ISBN 9781859739884.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus; Williamson, Elizabeth (2003). Leicestershire and Rutland. The Buildings of England. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300096187.
  • Richardson, Matthew (2014). Leicester in the Great War. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 9781783032891.
  • Skelton, Tim; Gliddon, Gerald (2008). Lutyens and the Great War. London: Frances Lincoln Publishers. ISBN 9780711228788.
  • Winter, Jay (2014). Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Canto Classics ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107661653.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Historic England. "The Arch of Remembrance (1074786)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Victoria Park (1000967)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  3. ↑ Richardson, pp. 14–16.
  4. ↑ Richardson, p. 21.
  5. ↑ Richardson, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Richardson, p. 61.
  7. ↑ Richardson, p. 150.
  8. ↑ Skelton, p. 67.
  9. 1 2 3 Pevsner, p. 261.
  10. ↑ Cavanagh, p. 340.
  11. ↑ Corke, p. 55.
  12. ↑ Skelton, p. 66.
  13. 1 2 3 Skelton, p. 69.
  14. ↑ Cawthorne, Douglas (7 November 2015). "Lutyens and the Leicester Arch of Remembrance". De Montfort University. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  15. ↑ Skelton, p. 46.
  16. ↑ Borg, p. 75.
  17. 1 2 "Leicester Arch of Remembrance". War Memorials Register. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  18. ↑ Skelton, p. 170.
  19. ↑ Skelton, p. 100.
  20. ↑ Borg, p. 130.
  21. ↑ King, p. 66.
  22. ↑ Winter, p. 105.
  23. ↑ Historic England. "Gates and Gatepiers North West of War Memorial onto University Road (1361051)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  24. ↑ Historic England. "Lodges and Gates North East of War Memorial (1185461)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  25. 1 2 Boorman (2005), p. 143.
  26. ↑ Boorman (1988), pp. 151–152.
  27. ↑ Richardson, p. 155.
  28. ↑ Skelton, pp. 65, 94.
  29. ↑ "The Listing and Grading of War Memorials". Historic England. July 2015. p. 2. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  30. ↑ "National Collection of Lutyens' War Memorials Listed". Historic England. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
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