The Meeting Place sculpture in London’s award winning international railway station was commissioned in the Autumn of 2006 by London and Continental Railways, a government owned company that was completing the restoration of St. Pancras Station. They were looking for an artist to design a large sculpture to sit under the Station clock. Thanks to the presence of mind of one young architect, my name came up during their deliberations and the Committee invited me to London.
The Station is a Neo-Gothic, Victorian masterpiece designed by William Henry Barlow & Sir George Gilbert Scott. This jewel in North London’s architectural crown came very close to being demolished after the War, and, had it not been for Sir John Betjeman and his Victorian Society, would surely have disappeared in the 1960s.
The design brief for the sculpture stated, among other things, that it should; “capture the spirit of romance once associated with train travel”; “be iconic like the Statue of Liberty” and be “accessible to as wide a public as possible”. There remained one year from accepting the commission to the Royal inauguration. Time was of the essence.
The final sculpture was installed in two phases. The giant couple was in place for the Royal opening while the plinth and sculpted frieze took a further eighteen months to complete.
