|
Date: |
|
Description: | Full length statue of Alexander McLeod standing in niche on front of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society building. He is wearing a frock-coat and waistcoat, with a handkerchief in his top pocket, and is very realistic in appearance with long flowing side whiskers. He is standing in front of a pile of books stacked on the ground, right foot forward, a scroll in his left hand, his right arm bent at the elbow with the palm upwards. The statue stands on a rounded plinth projecting from the façade. This has a grey granite face bearing the inscription, and an ochre coloured terracotta base and rim. The niche is incorporated in a yellow tile panel which rises the full height of the building, with a clock in a cupola on the top. Above the statue at second storey height, within the tiled panel, is a raised circle with lettering round it and the RACS motto in the centre. Inside are two curved sprays following the line of the circle and a Tudor rose at the base, a thistle and shamrock. The building is long, three storeys high, red brick with yellow terracotta dressings. It has elaborate relief decoration round the windows. The panel is in the centre and incorporates the doorway, and in addition to the niche at first floor height it has fluted pilasters, a frieze, pediment and raised lettering. The niche has double pilasters on either side supporting a mock pediment. The façade of the building on the ground floor has been altered and modernised but the panel has been preserved in its entirety. Capitals with a grotesque mask with open mouth in it. Pilasters repeated round bay windows. On the opposite side of the street is 136-152 Powis Street built in 1938 by S.W. Ackeroyd, the company architect, a modernistic building.(1) On 134, next door, is also a plaque with the motto 'Each for all and all for each' in a wreath.(1) Additional Information: Alexander Mcleod (1832-1902) one of the founders of Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS), set up by Arsenal workers in 1868. First full-time secretary from 1882 until his death. He was the son of Skye crofters and served an apprenticeship of five years as a mechanical engineer on the Firth of Forth. He then worked for Scottish railway companies. At the age of 27 he visited a friend at the Great Eastern railway works at Stratford and secured work at the Arsenal at Woolwich where he stayed until 1878. In 1882 he was appointed dual Secretary and Manager of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society which had been set up by a group of workers from the Arsenal in 1868, and he remained so until his death. McLeod was held in high regard both locally and throughout the Co-operative Movement, described in fact as 'a Prince among secretaries' by George Jacob Holyoake, another revered figure in the Movement. Died 17 May 1902. In his obituary in 'Comradeship', the RACS magazine, of June 1902, Holyoake said of him: 'The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, standing like a pillar of cloud or of fire of old, to show to London the road to a better social system, is the monument that commemorates his life work'.(4) | Subjects: | Sculpture | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Sculptor: Drury, Alfred Briscoe Architect: Bethell, F. | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=6985... | Go to resource |
|
|