Statue of Captain James Cook, The Mall

The bronze statue of Captain James Cook standing near the entrance to The Mall was not part of the original design for this royal thoroughfare. It arrived only after the former premier of New South Wales, Joseph Carruthers, wrote a public letter to The Times in nineteen hundred and eight. He expressed indignation that London lacked any major monument to the famous explorer, prompting the British Empire League to organize a fundraising committee to rectify the absence. The sculptor Thomas Brock received the commission with a specific mandate. Officials required him to design the statue so it would remain in harmony with the nearby Admiralty Arch, which he had also helped decorate with carvings of navigation and gunnery. Brock finished the project in nineteen hundred and fourteen, creating a scene where the navigator stands beside a ship capstan, clutching his charts and a telescope. The monument initially sparked an international debate regarding its inscription. When unveiled, the text credited Cook with laying the foundations of the British Empire in Australia and New Zealand, an omission of his work in North America that deeply offended Canadian officials. The committee eventually conceded, and in nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, a new line was added to the plinth acknowledging his efforts in charting the shores of Newfoundland and traversing the ocean gates of Canada.