Statue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, London

This bronze statue captures an eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart standing on a small stack of books, clutching his violin. Unveiled by Princess Margaret in 1994, the figure honors the time the young prodigy spent in this exact neighborhood during a grand tour of Europe in the mid-eighteenth century. Sculptor Philip Jackson created the piece after studying portraits of the composer to ensure the figure reflected a lively and precocious child. The choice of this location is deeply personal to Mozart's development as a musician. In 1764, his father Leopold fell ill and moved the family from the noisy center of London to what was then a quiet, semi-rural area known as Five Fields Row. To help his father recover in peace, the children were forbidden from practicing their instruments inside their temporary home at 180 Ebury Street. With no other way to occupy his time, the young Mozart sat down and composed his very first symphony.