One of London's most unusual benches has gone, presumed destroyed.
This is the memorial to Geoffrey Barkington. Those are my daughter's legs. This was her favourite bench. A doggy bench. An eccentric bench. And one that was punningly placed on Houndsditch in the City of London.
The bench was erected in a pocket park called Jubilee Gardens in 2018 as part of the London Festival of Architecture. It was designed by Patrick McEvoy who wanted to create a memorial to a friend's dachshund, called Geoffrey. A plaque on top of the bench gave a potted biography:
There the bench stood for six years. But then, in early 2024, the idiosyncratic perch was removed to enable landscaping works. I spotted it one final time while passing by in July.
This was to be my final sighting of my daughter's favourite bench. Its former home was landscaped to designs by Studio Weave and, tipped off by IanVisits, I discover that Geoffrey has not returned home.
The artist made inquiries.
I emailed Studio Weave who informed me that they ‘thought’ the bench was no longer due to be reinstalled. They referred me to the council, who cooly replied that Here Lies Geoffrey Barkington had been ‘recycled’. Somehow the euphemism for crushing the bench into rubble felt all the more barbaric.
And so, it seems, this wonderful pocket of eccentricity is gone forever. Our city, of course, has bigger problems than the destruction of a novelty bench. But every time one of its curiosities disappears, the city loses another aliquot of charm.
Geoffrey Barkington joins the Hardy Tree, the policeman's coat-hook sign, the plaques to Jacob von Hogflume and the gold-beater's arm of Soho as one of the lost oddities of London. My daughter seeks a new favourite bench.
