The statue of Achilles, Hyde Park, London

The statue of Achilles in London’s Hyde Park has several unusual features, not least being that it has nothing to do with Achilles!

The “Achilles” statue in Hyde Park

London’s Hyde Park features a number of statues, some of which carry interesting stories. The Achilles statue certainly counts among the latter.

This statue stands in the south-east corner of the park, close to Hyde Park Corner at the southern end of Park Lane. It is an enormous bronze of a naked warrior, armed with a sword and holding a round shield. A cloak is draped over one arm and his armour has been set upright on the ground next to his right leg.

Why Achilles? That is a good point, because there is nothing Greek about it. The armour is that of a Roman legionary and the statue was copied from one in Rome of a horse tamer on the Monte Catallo.

Another interesting thing about “Achilles” is that it was set up as a monument to honour the Duke of Wellington (who was very much alive at the time), although it does not bear the slightest resemblance to the victor of Waterloo and was never intended to.

This is the “Ladies’ Trophy”. It was sculpted by Sir Richard Westmacott and erected in 1822, having been paid for by subscriptions collected from the women of Great Britain. It was cast from bronze that had been melted down from cannons captured during the Peninsula campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.

The statue is appropriately located close to Wellington’s London home, Apsley House, and the Wellington Arch, which was originally sited closer to Apsley House than it is now.

There is a story to the effect that a French military veteran, who was upset by all the Wellington tributes that appeared in London following the Napoleonic Wars, breathed a sigh of relief when this particular offering was put in place. Referring to his hero Napoleon, he exclaimed “At last! He is avenged!” when the “Iron Duke” had apparently metamorphosed into “Bronze Achilles”!

There was some embarrassment caused when the statue was first unveiled, in that the Ladies’ Trophy featured a strong young man in all his naked glory, although with a close-fitting fig leaf to hide his most obvious masculine feature, if only just! Did the ladies really know what they were going to get when they ordered this statue? Maybe they did!

© John Welford