Timepiece Sculpture
TIMEPIECE SCULPTURE, ST KATHARINE'S DOCK
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1391106
- Date first listed:
- 27-Apr-2004
- List Entry Name:
- Timepiece Sculpture
- Statutory Address:
- TIMEPIECE SCULPTURE, ST KATHARINE'S DOCK
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1391106
- Date first listed:
- 27-Apr-2004
- List Entry Name:
- Timepiece Sculpture
- Statutory Address 1:
- TIMEPIECE SCULPTURE, ST KATHARINE'S DOCK
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TIMEPIECE SCULPTURE, ST KATHARINE'S DOCK
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Tower Hamlets (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 33861 80335
Details
788/0/10179 ST KATHARINE'S DOCK
27-APR-04 Timepiece Sculpture
GV II
Sundial sculpture. 1973 by Wendy Taylor, with funding from the J Lyons Group. A steel sundial like a giant washer, on which the hours are marked with raised dots. It is supported on three chains and pierced by a gnomon or pointer designed to resemble a large dockyard nail, all of which spring from a single point. Descriptive plaque to front.
A modern basic equinoctial sundial, or one aligned on the plane of the equator, it is an 'upper' equinoctial dial that shows the time only while the sun is north of the equator. Taylor has reduced the concept of the sundial to its most elemental.
Wendy Taylor (1945- ) was working in a studio at St Katharine's Docks in 1971 when the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation launched a programme of art for six British cities. London was not selected, but Taylor decided to produce her own work for St Katharine's Docks, then being conserved and redeveloped for offices and leisure. Her selected site outside the Tower Hotel has made this one of the most prominent of London sculptures, and its subject reflects the proximity of the Greenwich meridian, so important for timepieces. It is significant in Taylor's own development of large-scale public sculptures, particularly in her work with chains and industrial objects. It is also one of the earliest and most witty of the large public pieces created in the 1970s and initiated an on-going series of new sundials in public places.
Sources
Edward Lucie-Smith, Wendy Taylor, London, Art Books International, 1992, pp.32-8
Christopher St J H Daniel, Sundials, Princes Risborough, Shire, 1997, p.25
Information from the artist.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 493026
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Lucie-Smith, E, Wendy Taylor, (1992), 32-38
Daniel, C St J H, Sundials, (1997), 25
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
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