Focus on this artwork and explore the Description and history.
The bronze statue depicts a bearded Greathead wearing a broad-brimmed hat (an allusion to his South African origins) and carrying a coat over his right arm, holding a piece of paper which he is reading.  It stands on a hollow oval Portland stone base with granite plinth.  The base bears a bronze plaque on one side depicting a tunnelling shield with an inscription that credits Greathead as being the "inventor of the travelling shield that made possible the cutting of the tunnels of London's deep level tube system".  (A part of the tunnelling shield used at Bank station was rediscovered during a refurbishment, and left visible painted red in a passageway leading to the Waterloo & City line.) The other side of the base bears the carved stone badge of the City & South London Railway.
Visible in a gap between the statue and the base are the metal grilles of a vent shaft installed at Bank Junction to meet safety standards introduced after the King's Cross fire in 1987. The statute was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of London Sir Paul Newell on 17 January 1994.
tunnelling shield Portland stone deep level tube system Bank Lord Mayor of London London Waterloo & City line King's Cross fire vent shaft