Margaret Damer Dawson and the Chelsea Embankment bird bath memorial
A festive Thomas Carlyle and the restored bird bath
Chelsea Embankment Christmas 2013
The Chelsea Society has recently published an article they asked me to write on the newly restored memorial to Margaret Mary Damer Dawson on the Chelsea Embankment.
I first came across the remains of a memorial to Margaret Mary Damer Dawson on the Chelsea Embankment near Cheyne Walk several years ago. More accurately, I had read about the memorial and went searching for it. In its neglected state it hardly merited attention and even the metal rod on top of the base had been removed in later years.
The restored memorial is to be welcomed not least because it could have totally disappeared. The helpful council officer who replied to my initial query was not even aware of the former birdbath when responding to my questions about its loss. Sadly, this would not have been the first memorial to be ‘lost’ in London: the theft of Diane Gorvin’s Dr Salter’s Dream from Bermondsey’s Cherry Garden Pier being perhaps the most famous recent example.
The bird bath memorial is a fitting tribute to someone who was active in the Animal Defence and Anti Vivisection Society (as well as a founder of the Women’s Police Service during the First World War.)
Click here to download the article. Click here to go to the Chelsea Society website for more articles on the area and details of the society’s campaigns to preserve local heritage.
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