Standing Man & Walking Man - Paddington Basin, London, UK
N 51° 31.198 W 000° 10.806
30U E 695633 N 5711419
These two statues are to be found on Venice Walk just to the south east of Little Venice and just south east of The Westway road that passes over the canal.
Waymark Code: WMEZ4Z
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/26/2012
Views: 5
These two sculptures are of men: one is walking and the
other is standing. Both are life-size or maybe a bit taller and are cast from
bronze and painted with oil paints. The London is Cool website (visit
link) tells us a bit about Sean henry's work:
"If you go down to the Point Complex at Paddington
basin, which is a stones throw from Little Venice you will come across two
rather large and kinda freaky looking statues by the British Sculptor Sean
Henry. The two giant men that look too real for my liking are called Standing
Man and Walking Man.
I remember walking along the canal towpath when I first
moved to London, one dark night after a few beers in the Scottish pub at
Paddington the Rob Roy, when I first encountered the two statues in what seems
like a rather bizarre place for them to be located. They scared the living
daylights out of me, it was dark and there wasn’t another single person for what
seemed miles around.
Why were Standing Man and Walking Man there, I can only
imagine the developers wanted something there as a focal point, to brighten up a
rather grim stretch of the canal, which is right next to a flyover. And I take
my hat off to them, or I should say my beanie hat, because they have done a
great job."
The statues are amazingly lifelike and one has to be almost
in touching distance to see that they are inanimate!