In Statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Victoria Embankment, how is the Background discussed?
A memorial committee of the Institute of Civil Engineers commissioned the sculpture in 1860, some months after Brunel's death on 14 September 1859. While protracted discussions continued about an appropriate site to erect it and other statues, the bronze statue was completed in 1864 and kept in storage, and Marochetti died in 1867.The Institute of Civil Engineers had also commissioned Marochetti to make a similar statue of Brunel's rival engineer Robert Stephenson, who died a few weeks after Brunel on 12 October 1859, and then a third statue for the railway engineer Joseph Locke who died a year later, on 18 September 1860.  The intention was to erect the three statues together in a prominent position in Parliament Square, then known as the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster, near the statue of George Canning beside the offices of the Institute of Civil Engineers at One Great George Street.  After initially granting permission, the Office of Works decided against in 1868, reserving the space for statues of politicians.Ultimately the three statues were erected separately.  Marochetti's statue of Joseph Locke was installed in Locke Park, Barnsley, in 1866. The statue and its enclosure were listed at Grade II in 1986. A copy is displayed in Barentin, France, where Locke designed a railway viaduct.  The statue of Robert Stephenson was donated to the London and North Western Railway, and installed on a red granite pedestal outside Euston railway station in 1871.  The statue in the station forecourt is one of few surviving elements of the original station after it was redeveloped in the 1960s, and it was listed at Grade II in 1974.
Robert Stephenson Euston railway station St Margaret's, Westminster London and North Western Railway Institute of Civil Engineers bronze Parliament Square statue of Robert Stephenson statue of George Canning Locke Park Barentin Joseph Locke statue of Joseph Locke One Great George Street Barnsley Office of Works