La Délivrance

Regents Park Road, Finchley, London, N3 3JH

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Overview

War statue, designed in 1914-1918 by Émile Guillaume, bestowed to Finchley Urban District Council by Viscount Rothermere and erected 1927. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1286880
Date first listed:: 07-Apr-1983
List Entry Name:: La Délivrance
Statutory Address:: Regents Park Road, Finchley, London, N3 3JH

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Date:: 2007-05-20
Reference:: IOE01/16607/05
Rights:: © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1286880
Date first listed:: 07-Apr-1983
Date of most recent amendment:: 18-Feb-2016
List Entry Name:: La Délivrance
Statutory Address 1:: Regents Park Road, Finchley, London, N3 3JH

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Regents Park Road, Finchley, London, N3 3JH

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Barnet (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2478989540

Summary

War statue, designed in 1914-1918 by Émile Guillaume, bestowed to Finchley Urban District Council by Viscount Rothermere and erected 1927.

Reasons for Designation

'La Délivrance', designed in 1914-1918 by Émile Guillaume and erected in 1927, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

* Historical: a very unusual war statue, which celebrates an early Allied victory in the First World War, and which forms a rare example of a French commemorative statue in England. It is also a rare monumental tribute to France's sacrifices; * Sculptural: a singular nude figure in the Beaux Arts tradition by a French sculptor of note.

History

'La Délivrance' is one of a number of casts of an allegorical statue by Émile Oscar Guillaume (1867-1942) in memory of an early success in the First World War. The sculpture was inspired by the allied victory in the Battle of Marne, which took place between 6 and 12 September 1914 and in which French and British forces thwarted the German drive on Paris. Guillaume was a well-known early C20 French sculptor who focussed particularly on memorials. Eleven casts of La Délivrance were presented to the cities of France and Belgium which had been occupied or destroyed in the First World War.

The statue was exhibited at the 1920 Salon, where Guillaume won a medal. It was purchased by newspaper proprietor Viscount Rothermere, who presented it to Finchley Urban District Council due to his long association with the area. It was, at Rothermere’s insistence, located in a prominent position where this new arterial road joins the Finchley Road – one of the main exits from London to the North, and in an area which at that time was less heavily built up than today. It was originally surrounded by iron rails.

The statue was unveiled in a ceremony in 1927 by Lloyd George, Britain’s Prime Minister during the First World War, and was attended by c.8,000 people. Rothermere was particularly insistent in his address to the crowd that the statue was not a war memorial in the ordinary sense of the word, but simply a beautiful monument. Lloyd George, in a reportedly powerful speech, stated: '‘gaze at this statue and you will see that its message and meaning represent a symbol of what victory in the war meant to humanity – deliverance. Now we should strive for deliverance, not by the sword, but from it.'’

An information panel was placed in front of the statue by the Finchley Society in September 2007.

Details

War statue, designed in 1914-1918 by Émile Guillaume, donated to Finchley Urban District Council by Viscount Rothermere, and erected 1927.

MATERIALS: the statue is cast in bronze and stands on a pink polished granite pedestal.

DESCRIPTION: the figure is a female nude with upward stretched arms with a sword in her right hand. She stands on tiptoes upon a hemisphere which is mounted on a faceted drum pedestal and a square base. The hilt of the figure's sword and the front of the base of the statue are inscribed with the title of the piece. An information panel recounts: ‘LA DELIVERANCE / THIS STATUE BY EMILE GUILLAUME SYMBOLIZES / THE EMOTION INSPIRED AMONG THE ALLIED NATIONS / WHEN THE ARMIES OF BRITAIN AND FRANCE / DEFEATED THE INVADING GERMAN ARMIES / AT THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE SEPTEMBER 1914 / PRESENTED BY VISCOUNT ROTHERMERE’.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 20 July 2017.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 199031
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Websites
Bucks Free Press, Story of the Naked Lady, 25 September 2002, accessed 10 November 2015 from http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/212262.story_of_the_naked_lady/
Le Matin, La Statue de la Délivrance, 17 October 1919, accessed 10 November 2015 from http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5730507/f1.item.r=.langEN.zoom
War Memorials Online, accessed 20 July 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/119492
War Memorials Register, accessed 9 November 2015 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/3129
Other
Hull Daily Mail, Decorative Sculpture. 21 October 1927, p4
Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser, La Delivrance: Unveiling of French Sculptor's Statue at Finchley. 26 October 1927. p1

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.