ROYAL DOULTON - ST. ANTHONY

In the 1930s, Somers Town—located between St Pancras and King’s Cross (London)—underwent significant redevelopment led by Father Basil Jellicoe, an Anglo-Catholic priest devoted to improving housing conditions. His initiative aimed to replace the overcrowded and dilapidated slums with well-designed, affordable homes. The Sidney Street Estate, designed by architect Ian B. M. Hamilton and completed in 1938, consisted of six residential blocks named after saints and featured family-friendly amenities including communal courtyards, nurseries, play areas, and modern electric flats—a dramatic improvement over what had stood before.

A distinctive element of the estate’s design was the decorative washing-line posts, each crowned with a ceramic finial created by artist Gilbert Bayes (1872–1953). A firm believer in making beauty accessible, Bayes sought to enhance ordinary life through vibrant public art. These finials—once numbering in the hundreds across Somers Town—were grouped around shared courtyards and featured imaginative forms drawn from folklore, religion, and seasonal themes. Motifs included Christmas trees, ships symbolizing St Nicholas, fish referencing the sermons of St Anthony, and a playful mix of animals, saints, and fantastical creatures. Sadly, most of the original ceramics have been lost or stolen over the decades, though a few have been recreated in durable resin to preserve Bayes’s joyful legacy.

On the western side of the estate lies the block known as St Anthony’s, one of six saint-themed buildings that also include St Francis, St George, St Michael, St Nicholas, and St Christopher. Its entrance is marked by an arch above which sits a striking ceramic figure of St Anthony of Padua and a horse—a colourful sculpture crafted by Royal Doulton as part of Bayes’s broader decorative scheme. This statue serves as a key surviving symbol of the saint’s presence on the estate, echoing the religious and artistic themes that Bayes wove into the architecture of everyday life.

Condition

One day the sculpture was fine, overlooking passers-by; the next day, news reached the Friends of Somers Town museum that there had been some damage. The museum volunteers collected all the fragments on the floor just below the sculpture.

The damage was solely to the horse’s back leg and, despite the volunteer’s best efforts, a section had been lost.

Image of tray/on first visit

Conservation work

Work took place on site over a very cold few of weeks in November 2024. Cleaning, attaching all sections, gap-filling, reconstruction, retouching…

The sculpture was consecrated by… on June… and some clips of that day can be found here:…

References

A Space for Us Club. 2022. Art in Everyday Life. Accessed July 22, 2025. https://aspaceforus.club/artineverydaylife/.

Baldwin, Jean. 2014. “Sidney Estate.” London Details. Accessed July 22, 2025. https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/sidney-estate/.

Ornamental Passions. 2014. “Sidney Estate, Somers Town, NW1.” Ornamental Passions Blog. Accessed July 22, 2025. https://ornamentalpassions.blogspot.com/2014/07/sidney-estate-somers-town-n1.html.

Speel, Bob. n.d. “Sidney Street Estate, Somers Town.” Bob Speel’s London Sculpture. Accessed July 22, 2025. http://www.speel.me.uk/sculptlondon/sidneystestate.htm.

The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA). n.d. Ceramics for a Community – The Art of Gilbert Bayes. World Museum of Decorative Arts (WMODA). Accessed July 22, 2025. https://www.wmoda.com/ceramics-for-a-community/.

Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society. n.d. Camden: Tile Gazetteer Entry. Accessed July 22, 2025. https://tilesoc.org.uk/tile-gazetteer/camden.html.