91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Relief

Infants Hospital - baby 3

Site: Infants Hospital (6 memorials)

SW1, Udall Street

The two be-wreathed babies are on the building on the south-east side of the street, which was the 1914 nurses home; the others on the, photographed, north-west side. The arch at the left of our photo contains a nicely foliated cartouche "The Infants Hospital". Since the hospital closed in 1995 this building and the nurses home have been converted into flats.

These swaddled babies have their inspiration in work by Della Robbia. His bambini were installed on the in 1487 in Florence and the image of a swaddled baby has since become a symbol of paediatrics.

We can't get over the impression that these babies are semaphoring to each other, possibly asking when the sack race starts.

Note: Udall Street was known as Alfred Street until probably about 1930-40.

2019: We found another of these babies - at "130 Poplar High Street, built as a Roman Catholic Settlement of the Holy Child at No. 130(–132). This demure block was built, primarily as a youth club, in 1955–6, to designs by Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882–1963)" Text from . .

2022: We published another swaddled baby at Bonner Street WW1 memorial.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Infants Hospital - baby 3

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

St Antholin Church, demolished

St Antholin Church, demolished

EC4, Queen Victoria Street, St Mary Aldermary

St Antholin Church was about 100m due east; to the east of what is now the junction of Queen Street and Queen Victoria Street, to the sou...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Saville Theatre - Chester Players

Saville Theatre - Chester Players

WC2, Shaftesbury Avenue, Odeon Covent Garden

The ‘Drama Through the Ages’ frieze is by Gilbert Bayes. The listing says "Bayes' frieze is one of the largest and most important works o...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Lloyds of London 1958 building

Lloyds of London 1958 building

EC3, Gracechurch Street

Phillip Ward-Jackson in his encyclopaedic "Public Sculpture in the City of London" identifies these reliefs as representing the four elem...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
RIBA - James Woodford

RIBA - James Woodford

W1, Portland Place, 66

The pair of massive cast bronze doors carry deep reliefs representing the Thames and London's buildings including: Guildhall, Houses of P...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Crest - National Bank Ltd

Crest - National Bank Ltd

W8, Notting Hill Gate, 78

Probably erected with the building in the 1960s.

1 subject commemorated