Bellot Memorial, Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich, by Philip Hardwick (1792-1870))

Memorial to Joseph René Bellot

Philip Hardwick (1792-1870)

1855

Red Aberdeen granite

Cutty Sark Park

Greenwich, London SE10

Lieutenant Bellot (1826-1852) embarked from Greenwich in 1851 on his last voyage, as a volunteer on H.M.S. Phoenix. This was one of a number of expeditions involved in the search for Sir John Franklin, whose own expedition had gone missing in the Arctic on an earlier voyage to find the North-West Passage. [Commentary continues below; mouse over the text to look for links.]

Photograph and text 2009 by Jacqueline Banerjee.

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Mystery still surrounds the fate of Franklin and his men, and Bellot himself perished while helping two crew members adrift on an ice floe. The young French naval officer was greatly admired in England for being "at all times foremost in the offer of his services for any difficult or dangerous undertaking" ("Lieut. Bellot" 641), and the memorial here was set up by public subscription. Philip Hardwick, architect of the warehouses at St Katharine Dock and surveyor to Greenwich Hospital since 1848, designed the memorial, giving it the currently popular form of an Egyptian obelisk (see Curl 266). The monument is between 27' and 28' high ("Bellot Memorial"). For a much taller obelisk, see the earlier Wellington Monument in Dublin.

Related Material

References

"Bellot Memorial" (Public Monuments & Sculpture Association site). Viewed 7 August 2009.

Curl, James Stevens. The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West. London: Routledge, 2005.

"Lieut. Bellot" (Obituary). The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review. 21 August 1852: 640-42. Available here.

Last modified 7 August 2009