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Latitude: 51.5298 / 51°31'47"N
Longitude: -0.0449 / 0°2'41"W
OS Eastings: 535714
OS Northings: 183025
OS Grid: TQ357830
Mapcode National: GBR J8.CCM
Mapcode Global: VHGQV.5TM3
Plus Code: 9C3XGXH4+W2
Entry Name: Blind Beggar and His Dog Cranbrook Estate
Listing Date: 15 April 1998
Grade: II*
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1031598
English Heritage Legacy ID: 469110
ID on this website: 101031598
Location: Globe Town, Tower Hamlets, London, E2
County: London
District: Tower Hamlets
Electoral Ward/Division: Bethnal Green
Parish: Non Civil Parish
Built-Up Area: Tower Hamlets
Traditional County: Middlesex
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Greater London
Church of England Parish: St James the Less Bethnal Green
Church of England Diocese: London
Tagged with: Sculpture
TQ 3582 ROMAN ROAD, E3
(North side)
788/10/10085
Blind Beggar and his Dog,
Cranbrook Estate
- II*
Heraldic sculpture. 1958 by Elisabeth Frink, sited 1959 temporarily in Roman Road and on its present and intended site by May 1963. Commissioned by Bethnal Green Metropolitan Borough, with the financial assistance of the London County Council. Bronze, c. eight feet, on high and stepped concrete plinth. Two elongated and very rigid figures, the man with outstretched arm being hesitantly led by the very geometrically expressed dog. The group is one of Frink's earliest commissions, and achieves considerable emotional pathos. The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green is a noted local mythological figure, dating back to at least the seventeenth century and much represented locally in stained glass and reliefs, eg. in the borough's major civic buildings and in local public houses which bear the name. Bethnal Green MB were justly proud of their enterprising housing policy, of which this formal garden surrounded by bungalows for the elderly is a centrepiece. Though the subject was thus dictated to Frink, it fits well in her oeuvre. She was profoundly affected by her experience as a civilian during the War, and her work explores the themes of aggression and vulnerability - 'the geometry of fear' - fashionable amongst the more radical sculptors of the 1950s.
Listing NGR: TQ3571483025
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