Is this central London's least noticed statue?
Always look up! It's a cliché in London, but it really can pay off. A good case in point can be seen along Horseferry Road in Westminster. Glance up to the roofline of the modern apartment block on the corner of Dean Bradley Street and there she is: a much elevated statue of Ada Lovelace.
Lovelace (1815-1852) was a celebrated mathematician and technology pioneer, at a time when few women entered those fields. She worked closely with Charles Babbage on the analytical engines —mechanical prototypes of the computer — and is sometimes credited as being the world's first computer programmer.
In recent years, Lovelace has become a symbol of women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). She is particularly celebrated on the second Tuesday of every October, which has become known as Ada Lovelace Day. The Royal Institution now makes the rallying cry in London, but the day is celebrated all over the world.
The bronze statue of Ada Lovelace on Horseferry Road stands before a series of hole-punched cards, an early form of computer memory that would have been used on the analytical engine had it been built. The statue, unveiled in 2022, is the work of Etienne and Mary Millner, and is based on a portrait of Lovelace by Margaret Sarah Carpenter.
Her placement on this private development in Horseferry Road may seem a little random. However, look next-door to 9 Millbank, which was formerly Imperial Chemical House. The roofline of this 1920s building features a series of (male) statues with scientific themes. Developers Berkeley Group wanted to pay homage to that grouping with its own scientific statue, and Ada Lovelace was chosen.
Still, it is a shame she stands seven floors up, where few people will notice her. The punchcards behind her apparently contain a coded message, but you'd have to be a window cleaner or burglar to ever get close enough to unravel it.
