British sculptor Gilbert Bayes rose to prominence in tandem with a burgeoning demand for the arts. In the wake of WWI, there emerged a desire to erect commemorative statues which symbolised the trauma of war and the tragic loss of life.
Bayes' workshop was at the forefront of the public's stimulation of a war memorial movement, representing one of the greatest examples of national patronage of sculpture. Exhibitions were held at the Victoria & Albert Museum and Royal Academy to aid local communities and regions in their choice of sculptors, materials and subject matter.
Bayes’ emotive work, Destiny, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1916, and subsequently used as the centrepiece for the Ramsgate War Memorial.
During the 1930's, Gilbert Bayes worked on a community art project for the St. Pancras Housing Association Improvement Society as part of a slum clearance scheme at Sidney Street in Somerstown, north of Euston station, and at other sites across London. The aim was the provision of high-quality homes for the poorest tenants. The society’s architect was Ian B. M. Hamilton, the grandfather of the current owners, and he designed all the new flats to stand on the cleared land.
