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The statue of Peter Pan is a 1912 bronze sculpture of J. M. Barrie's character Peter Pan. It was commissioned by Barrie and made by Sir George Frampton. The original statue is displayed in Kensington Gardens in London, to the west of The Long Water, close to Barrie's former home on Bayswater Road. Barrie's stories were inspired in part by the gardens: the statue is at the place where Peter Pan lands in Barrie's 1902 book The Little White Bird after flying out of his nursery. Six other casts made by Frampton have been erected in other places around the world.

Statue in Kensington Gardens

The sculpture stands about 14 feet (4.3 m) high. It has a tall conical form, like a tree stump, topped by a young boy, about life size for an eight-year-old, blowing a thin musical instrument like a trumpet or flute, sometimes interpreted as pan pipes. The sides of the stump are decorated with small figures of squirrels, rabbits, mice, and fairies. Barrie had intended the boy to be based on a photograph of Michael Llewelyn Davies wearing a Peter Pan costume, but Frampton chose another model, perhaps George Goss or William A. Harwood. Barrie was disappointed by the results, claiming the statue "didn't show the Devil in Peter".

Barrie had the original bronze erected in Kensington Gardens on 30 April 1912, without fanfare and without permission, so that it might appear to children that the fairies had put it in place overnight. He published a notice in The Times newspaper the following day, 1 May: "There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived."

He gave the sculpture to the city of London. Some critics objected to his advertising his works by erecting a sculpture in a public park without permission. In 1928, vandals tarred and feathered the sculpture. It became a Grade II* listed building in 1970. Royal Parks replaced the plinth in 2019, which caused some controversy.

Other casts

Frampton made a series of small bronze reproductions of the Peter Pan figure from 1913 to his death in 1928. Some were sold at Bonham's in March and November 2015, and one was sold in Scotland in 2016 for £60,000. Frampton made six other full-size casts from the original moulds, which stand in the following places:

• Egmont Park [fr], in Brussels, given to the Belgian state by Frampton in 1924 to recognise the Anglo-Belgian friendship during the First World War; it suffered bullet damage in the Second World War, and was listed as a Belgian historical monument in 1975.
• Bowring Park, in St. John's, Newfoundland, erected on 29 August 1925, as a tribute to Betty Munn, the daughter of John Shannon Munn, who had died aged three on 23 February 1918 in the sinking of SS Florizel.
• Sefton Park, in Liverpool, unveiled in June 1928, with the participation of Pauline Chase who reprised her role of Peter Pan for the opening. It was Grade II listed in 1985 and moved to the Palm House in 1990. Over the years, it had been vandalised several times but in 2005, it was fully restored.
• Queens Gardens, in Perth, Western Australia, erected overnight on 10 June 1929, and given by Rotary International to the Perth City Council to celebrate the centenary of the state of Western Australia (founded in 1829 as Swan River Colony).
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada; erected on 14 September 1929 by the College Heights Association in a park that became known as "Peter Pan Park", which was later named Glenn Gould Park.
• The grounds of Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, by Eldridge R. Johnson in 1929, outside the Walt Whitman Arts Center.

• Egmont Park, Brussels
• Bowring Park, St. John's, Newfoundland
• Sefton Park, Liverpool
• Queens Gardens, Perth, Western Australia
• Johnson's Park, Camden, New Jersey

George Frampton Memorial

The memorial to George Frampton in the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, sculpted by Edward Gillick in 1930, depicts a young child holding in his hand a miniature replica of Frampton's statue of Peter Pan.

Other sculptures

Other sculptors have created statues of Peter Pan, including:

• a statue by Paul Montfort in 1925 in Melbourne, Australia;
• a 1927 fountain and sculpture by Mary "Mae" Cook and architect Otto C. Darst, in Columbus, Ohio;
• Charles Andrew Hafner's 1928 sculpture in Carl Schurz Park in New York City;
• a statue by Alex Proudfoot RSA, Principal of Glasgow School of Art, at the Mearnskirk Hospital for children in Glasgow in 1949;
• Ivan Mitford-Barberton's 1959 sculpture at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa;
• Cecil Thomas's 1965 sculpture in Dunedin Botanic Garden, New Zealand;
• Alistair Smart's 1972 statue in Kirriemuir in Scotland, J.M. Barrie's birthplace;
• Catherine Marr-Johnson's 1988 drinking fountain statue in the park of Blenheim Palace.
• Diarmuid Byron O'Connor's 2000 sculpture at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

See also

• Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906 novel
• Peter Pan (Columbus, Ohio)

References

1. "The Peter Pan Statue". royalparks.org.uk.
2. Birkin, Andrew: J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys, Constable, 1979; revised edition, Yale University Press, 2003
3. Mackail, Denis (1941). Barrie: The Story of J. M. B. Peter Davies p439
4. Chaney, Lisa (2006). Hide-and-Seek with Angels: A Life of J. M. Barrie. Arrow.
5. Birkin, Andrew: J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys, Constable, 1979; revised edition, Yale University Press, 2003
6. "The Outrages on London Statues". Our London Correspondence. The Manchester Guardian. No. 25, 580. Manchester. 23 August 1928. p. 8.
7. Alberge, Dalya (13 April 2019). "Peter Pan author would be 'appalled' by pompous new statue plinth, his family say". The Telegraph.
8. "The Peter Pan Statue". royalparks.org.uk.
9. "Bonhams Auction: A RARE AND EARLY BRONZE FIGURE OF PETER PAN LOT 299". Bonhams. 4 November 2015.
10. "Peter Pan sculpture to be auctioned". BBC News. 3 April 2016.
11. "Peter Pan statue fetches £60,000 at Edinburgh auction". BBC News. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
12. "City of Brussels Peter-Pan-statue-regains-panflute". Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
13. "The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow up".
14. "Peter Pan statue to return home". 30 November 2005.
15. "Peter Pan | Monument Australia". monumentaustralia.org.au.
16. PLUMMER, KEVIN (21 June 2008). "Historicist | Toronto's Peter Pan Statue, City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 716". torontoist.com.
17. "Johnson Park Restoration - Peter Pan". rutgers.edu.
18. City of London – 2: St. Paul's Cathedral, Church Monuments Society, retrieved 16 May 2017
19. "📍THE PETER PAN FOUNTAIN || BLENHEIM PALACE #short #blenheimpalace #england 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿". YouTube.

Media related to Peter Pan monuments by George Frampton at Wikimedia Commons

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• 1912 sculptures
• Bronze sculptures in the City of Westminster
• Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool
• Grade II* listed statues in the City of Westminster
• Outdoor sculptures in London
• Works based on Peter Pan
• Sculptures by George Frampton
• Sculptures of children in London
• Statues of fictional characters
• Sculptures of rabbits and hares
• Sculptures of mice and rats
• Sculptures of musical instruments
• Squirrels in art
• Fairies in art
• Kensington Gardens
• Bronze sculptures in England
• Bronze sculptures in Belgium
• Bronze sculptures in Canada
• Bronze sculptures in Australia
• Bronze sculptures in New Jersey
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• Sculptures of children in Belgium
• Sculptures of children in Canada
• Sculptures of children in Australia
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• Animal sculptures in London
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