Where To Find Eduardo Paolozzi's Sculptures In London

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Last Updated 12 May 2025

Where To Find Eduardo Paolozzi's Sculptures In London

We track down the key London works by the famed sculptor and Tottenham Court Road mosaicist.

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a Scottish artist who contributed numerous works of art to the London streetscape, as well as the much-loved mosaics within Tottenham Court Road station. Two decades after his death, Paolozzi's work continues to find fresh outlets. A previously uncast sculpture of Oscar Wilde was added to his public works in Chelsea in October 2025.

Follow us on a Paolozzi trail to find all his public works in London...

1. Isaac Newton, The British Library (1995)

Isaac Newton, by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, outside the The British Library. Image: Matt Brown

Paolozzi's most famous sculpture stands outside the British Library. The colossal statue depicts a seated Isaac Newton poring over his work with a set of dividers. It's based in the William Blake painting which is in the Tate collection, thereby uniting Paolozzi's artistic genius with that of Blake and Newton.

2. Mosaics, Tottenham Court Road (1986)

Eduardo Paolozzi's mosaics at tottenham court road
Image: Matt Brown

Newton might be Paolozzi's most famous sculpture, but it's only seen by a fraction of the crowds who've admired his mosaic work at Tottenham Court Road. The partly-abstract images were installed in 1986 and are much loved by London commuters. The sprawling works of art were somewhat threatened by the Crossrail project but, happily, around 95% of the tiles were left in place. Our favourite section is the scene depicting the Hubble Space Telescope, in place four years before the telescope was actually launched.

3. Ventilation shaft, Pimlico (1979)

The ventilation shaft near pimilco station. by sir eduardo paolozzi
Image: Matt Brown

Just outside Pimlico station is the best looking Underground ventilation shaft you're likely to see. As well as keeping air flowing in and out of the station, this is unmistakably a Paolozzi design, with its mix of metallic and organic forms.  Paolozzi's work is often about machines and how they function, so a ventilation duct is an apt place to find him.

4. Head of Invention, Design Museum (1989)

Image: Matt Brown

Head of Invention, as this archetypal Paolozzi is called, has graced the Design Museum since 1990 — first at its Shad Thames location, and now at its modern home at the old Commonwealth Institute in Kensington. From the front, we see a sci-fi face interspersed with slabs of metal; wander round behind, and it gets even more machine-like.

5. Oscar Wilde, King's Road, Chelsea (1998/2024)

The head of Oscar Wilde by Eduardo Paolozzi, in chelsea
Image: Matt Brown

A similar sculpture now decorates Dovehouse Green off King's Road in Chelsea. This eccentric portrait of Oscar Wilde was commissioned and sculpted by Paolozzi in the 1990s, but it took more than a quarter-century to finally be cast and installed.

6. A Maximis Ad Minima, Kew Gardens (1998)

A sculpture in Kew by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi
Image: Matt Brown

Head to the South end of the Princess of Wales conservatory to find yet another Paolozzi man-machine-mix. The body parts and gears combine to look like a disassembled cyborg trying to piece itself back together again. It's called 'A Maximis Ad Minima' ('from the greatest to the least).

7. Vanished artwork: Piscator, Euston Station (1980)

The rather amorphous sculpture at Euston showing a lack of maintenance. Image: Matt Brown

This pleasingly shaped if hard to interpret object stood outside Euston for many years, though nobody seemed to know whose responsible it was (it's since been claimed by the Arts Council of England). It was boarded up and later removed when the area in front of Euston underwent major transformation in preparation for HS2. It remains in storage, with an uncertain future. The sculpture displays a mixture of organic and mechanical elements, in an homage to the German Expressionist and theatre director Erwin Piscator.

8. Vanished artwork: The Artist as Hephaestus, Holborn (1987)

Finally we wanted to give a mention to a work that used to grace Holborn. It was commissioned for the offices of the London & Paris Property Group, which subsequently sold it at auction in 2012 when the building was redeveloped. It depicted the Greek god Hephaestus, but with the face of the artist.

Paolozzi's work can also be seen in numerous galleries, including Tate Britain. His sculptures have also appeared in various locations as temporary exhibits, such as the titanic depiction of Vulcan, which briefly became part of The Line sculpture trail in the Royal Docks.

Have we missed any? Let us know and we'll add them to this list.

This article was originally written by Tabish Khan in 2017. It has been updated (2025) by Matt Brown

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