London is an open-air gallery if you know where to look. This guide brings together public sculptures, monuments and installations you can see for free across the city, from riverside landmarks to works tucked into squares, streets, parks and station concourses.
Showing 28 public sculptures
Tony Hisgett / CC BY 2.0
1929 · 55 Broadway, Westminster, London
A Portland stone relief on the south facade of 55 Broadway, depicting a striding father and child. One of Epstein's most controversial works, it provoked public outrage over its bold, Egyptian-influenced nudity when unveiled in 1929.
Tony Hisgett / CC BY 2.0
1929 · 55 Broadway, Westminster, London
A monumental Portland stone relief carved in situ on the north facade of 55 Broadway, London Underground's Art Deco headquarters. Epstein's brooding maternal figure, inspired by Egyptian art, caused a scandal on its 1929 unveiling.
Photo: Yair Haklai / CC BY-SA 3.0
1950 · Battersea Park, London
Three upright stone figures carved from Darley Dale sandstone have occupied Battersea Park since 1950, among Moore's earliest public commissions. They reflect his early interest in ancient and pre-Columbian sculpture.
Photo: The wub / CC BY-SA 4.0
1957 · Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London
A monumental bronze of a draped seated woman surveys the financial district from Canary Wharf. Originally sited in a Tower Hamlets housing estate, it was controversially relocated here in the 1990s.
Loz Pycock (CC BY-SA 2.0)
1961 · Brandon Estate, London
A monumental two-part bronze figure split into torso and legs, reclining on a low plinth. Moore's abstracted human form evokes landscape and geological forms, combining organic mass with open space.
amandabhslater / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
1962 · Battersea Park, London
A bronze memorial by Dame Barbara Hepworth to Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash in 1961. This version has stood on the south shore of Battersea Park's boating lake since 1964.
Photo by Amanda Slater, CC BY-SA 2.0
1963 · John Lewis, Oxford Street, London
A monumental aluminium sculpture commissioned for the John Lewis building on Oxford Street. Standing 5.8 metres high, its two asymmetric wing-like blades curve toward each other, linked by radial rods, representing the spirit of common ownership.
Photo: Tagishsimon / CC BY-SA 3.0
1967 · Abingdon Street Gardens, Westminster, London
Two interlocking bronze forms inspired by a bone fragment sit in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, donated by Moore in 1967. A dialogue between modern abstraction and one of Britain's most ancient sacred sites.
Photo: Prioryman / CC BY-SA 4.0
1979 · Greenwich Park, London
A tall, attenuated bronze figure with blade-like protrusions stands in Greenwich Park. The narrow silhouette creates dramatically shifting profiles as the viewer moves around it.
Photo: No Swan So Fine / CC BY-SA 4.0
1980 · Kensington Gardens, London
A monumental abstract arch carved from Roman travertine stone, gifted to Kensington Gardens by Moore in 1980. The work frames views across the park and reflects his lifelong interest in landscape and the abstracted human form.
Photo: James O'Gorman / CC BY-SA 2.0
1983 · St Paul's Cathedral, London
A tender marble group of mother and child, housed within St Paul's Cathedral. One of Moore's last major works, reflecting the warmth and quiet monumentality that defined his late style.
![Untitled [Listening]](https://amgrqjgwpmppfivxaiay.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/artworks/antony-gormley-untitled-listening-1985.jpg)
Photo: Amanda Slater / CC BY-SA 2.0
1985 · Maygrove Peace Park, London
A large granite and bronze figure is seated in Maygrove Peace Park in Camden, commissioned as a memorial work for a community green space. The work's title and composed form suggest inward attention, a counterpoint to the surrounding residential neighbourhood.
Photo: Paul Trafford / CC BY 2.0
1987 · Broadgate, Liverpool Street, London
Five trapezoidal plates of Cor-Ten steel prop against one another to form a 17-metre self-supporting tower at the entrance to Broadgate. Step inside to find a sheltered, sky-gazing chamber.
Photo: Hayden Soloviev (CC BY 4.0)
1990 · Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly, London
Two angular bronze figures with featureless geometric heads survey Piccadilly from the top of Fortnum & Mason's canopy. Chadwick's signature abstraction gives the royal pair an imposing, otherworldly presence above one of London's most iconic streets.
Photo by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0
1995 · British Library Piazza, London
A monumental 12-foot bronze depicting Isaac Newton as imagined by William Blake — hunched and measuring the earth with a compass. Installed in the British Library piazza, St Pancras, London.
Luke McKernan / CC BY-SA 2.0
1998 · Charing Cross, London
Maggi Hambling's witty bronze and granite memorial depicts Oscar Wilde emerging from a coffin-like bench, inscribed with his quote: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Kendra Haste / Other Fabrications
2000 · Waterloo Underground Station, London
Life-sized African elephant made from painted galvanised wire over steel armature, commissioned by London Underground's Art on the Underground programme. Installed at Waterloo's Jubilee line entrance, it references Astley's Amphitheatre — the world's first modern circus — which once occupied this site.
Photo: The wub / CC BY-SA 4.0
2000 · Greenwich Peninsula, London
A soaring cloud of galvanised steel tetrahedral units coalesces around the ghost of a standing figure above the Thames at Greenwich Peninsula, the body dissolving into a constellation of metal. Installed as a millennial work, it became one of the most distinctive landmarks on the river.
Photo: ClemRutter / CC BY-SA 4.0
2001 · Regent's Place, London
Two cast iron body-forms face each other across the public realm of Regent's Place on Euston Road, commissioned by British Land for the mixed-use development. The paired figures introduce a moment of human encounter and doubling into one of London's busiest urban corridors.
Photo: mira66 / CC BY 2.0
2002 · British Library, London
Eight Ice Age glacial boulders bearing the pressed outlines of human bodies are arranged in the British Library forecourt. The work places geological deep time in dialogue with human presence.
Ham / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
2009 · Central Saint Giles, London, London
A lumpy bronze figure scaled up from a small clay maquette, William subverts the tradition of commemorative public sculpture by presenting an ambiguous, genderless amalgam of body parts that refuses heroic pretence.
Photo: GrindtXX / CC BY-SA 3.0
2011 · British Library, London
A solitary cast iron figure stands on the forecourt of the British Library, one of Gormley's body-cast forms sited at a major repository of recorded human thought. The work invites contemplation of the individual in relation to the vast archive of knowledge behind it.
Photo: The wub / CC BY-SA 4.0
2012 · Limehouse Reach, London
A cast iron body-form stands at the tidal margin of Limehouse Reach, one of Gormley's series of figures placed at the meeting point of land and water. The work engages the industrial heritage of London's docklands and the rhythmic pull of the Thames.
Photo: David Anstiss / CC BY-SA 2.0
2012 · Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
At 114 metres, the UK's largest public artwork coils above the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Kapoor's twisting red lattice tower houses the world's longest tunnel slide and an observation deck.
Photo: Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
2014 · Beaumont Hotel, London
A monumental stainless steel room-form occupies the forecourt of the Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair, its interior clad in fumed oak and accessible as a bookable hotel suite. The work merges sculpture, architecture and hospitality in an unprecedented live-in artwork.
Photo: APK / CC BY 4.0
2018 · St Pancras International, London
A large pink neon inscription in Emin's handwriting sweeps beneath the great Victorian clock at St Pancras International. A permanent commission for one of London's most romantic public spaces.
Dominic James
2019 · Chelsea Barracks, Dove Place, London
Standing 8 metres tall with 693 anodised aluminium components joined without welding using Japanese joinery techniques, Bicameral's bifurcating and trifurcating branches evoke neural pathways, lungs, and a schematised tree. Commissioned for Dove Place, Chelsea Barracks, London.
Photo: 14GTR / CC0 1.0
2022 · Imperial College London, London
A large angular slab of weathering steel leans at a precise angle on the Imperial College London campus, its surface slowly oxidising to deep rust. A meditation on material endurance and scientific inquiry.
